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As the F-35 program limps toward the end of its much-delayed operational testing period and subsequent full-rate production decision, unanswered questions about its combat effectiveness and suitability for service within the fleet remain. The Pentagon weapons testing office\u2019s 2019 annual report, released earlier this year, paints a picture of an incompletely designed and vulnerable aircraft that may never be able to perform many of its intended functions.<\/p>\n
The director of operational test and evaluation\u2019s (DOT&E) report includes the following lowlights:<\/strong><\/p>\n As the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) recently reported, a previously confidential document produced by the F-35 program office plotted out the still-growing number of design flaws it was grappling with as of February 28, 2020. As the program approaches a full-rate production decision, the total number of reported unresolved design flaws has increased by 10, up from the total reported by the testing office in January\u2014a time when the total number of flaws should be decreasing.<\/p>\n The F-35 Joint Program Office did not respond to comments for this report.<\/p>\n Unaddressed Design Flaws Adding Risk<\/strong><\/p>\n The services set lofty goals for the F-35 program at its 2001 inception. The program established 536 performance specifications for the functional requirements of the aircraft and its components. As of September 17, 2019, the program had satisfied only 493 of them.<\/p>\n The latest testing report on the F-35 shows there hasn\u2019t been appreciable improvement in the program\u2019s overall reliability since 2016.<\/p>\n The program office is expected to formally revise the original contract with Lockheed Martin before the full-rate production decision to delete some of the requirements and complete the rest of the work during later development projects. The testing office\u2019s report does not include a full list of the unmet goals, but mentioned that the aircraft is falling short of the airframe durability standards. That means the aircraft are unlikely to last as long as planned, and readiness will be negatively impacted by the failure to build an effective logistics and maintenance network. The testing office reports that many of the unmet goals may never be achieved or will only be reached during later development projects.<\/p>\n Despite the Pentagon\u2019s self-congratulatory declaration in 2018 that the program had completed its troubled development process, the testing office reports that in fact the development phase contract \u201cmay take years to complete.\u201d Meanwhile, pilots today are dealing with a problem-ridden aircraft that requires them to work around faulty components that, according to DOT&E, \u201cmay be observed from both operational testing and fielded operations.\u201d Translation: U.S. pilots will take underdeveloped and glitchy aircraft into combat for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n In addition to the requirements that have not been\u2014and possibly will not be\u2014met, the program is still plagued by hundreds of unresolved design flaws. The Pentagon calls these design flaws \u201cdeficiencies,\u201d and as of the release of the annual testing report, the F-35 program had 873. Most were identified prior to the declared end of the program\u2019s development phase\u2014officially known as system development and demonstration\u2014providing more evidence of just how premature the decision to end that phase was.<\/p>\n Read Full Story on the POGO<\/a> website<\/p>\n\n