ORAC
6th Sep 2007, 14:25
LM want to cut 2 aircraft from the test programme and 15% of the planned test schedule: Lockheed Martin wants to alter JSF testing to save money (http://www.engineeringatboeing.com/articles/plume.html)
........Lockheed Martin, which is running over budget on the first phase of the Joint Strike Fighter program, wants to save money by cutting back on testing. Lockheed is seeking Defense Department approval to cut the number of test aircraft and personnel plus hundreds of flight tests to gain savings and replenish a reserve fund that has dwindled to $392 million from about $2 billion.....
Air Force Assistant Secretary for Acquisition Sue Payton said there’s been no decision on Lockheed’s request, although the reserve should be replenished. “When you run out of your management reserve, it’s just like not having any insurance and you break your leg: You’re in a world of hurt,” she said. “I think we are doing a real bright thing to figure out how we can regain some.”
Thomas Christie, who endorsed the original test program as head of Pentagon testing from mid-2001 to 2005, said he agrees with continually reviewing the program, cutting duplication and unnecessary requirements where necessary. Still, “I have to raise a red flag when I see reductions in testing as a large share of such a restructuring,” he said.
Lockheed’s proposal calls for cutting at least two planes from the 14-plane program and as many as 700 sorties from the more than 5,000 flights planned to test the aircraft’s avionics, radar, communications, weapons integration and other systems. These tests can be accomplished with the same efficiency though more cheaply in ground simulators and a flying software laboratory on board a Boeing 737 aircraft, Lockheed Martin said.
Christie disagreed. “Unfortunately, too often the solution to staying on schedule and under cost -- to include maintaining or building up management reserve funds for the inevitable unforeseen problems -- is to reduce test and evaluation,” he said in an e-mailed statement.
“History is replete with the consequences of this misguided thinking,” he said........
........Lockheed Martin, which is running over budget on the first phase of the Joint Strike Fighter program, wants to save money by cutting back on testing. Lockheed is seeking Defense Department approval to cut the number of test aircraft and personnel plus hundreds of flight tests to gain savings and replenish a reserve fund that has dwindled to $392 million from about $2 billion.....
Air Force Assistant Secretary for Acquisition Sue Payton said there’s been no decision on Lockheed’s request, although the reserve should be replenished. “When you run out of your management reserve, it’s just like not having any insurance and you break your leg: You’re in a world of hurt,” she said. “I think we are doing a real bright thing to figure out how we can regain some.”
Thomas Christie, who endorsed the original test program as head of Pentagon testing from mid-2001 to 2005, said he agrees with continually reviewing the program, cutting duplication and unnecessary requirements where necessary. Still, “I have to raise a red flag when I see reductions in testing as a large share of such a restructuring,” he said.
Lockheed’s proposal calls for cutting at least two planes from the 14-plane program and as many as 700 sorties from the more than 5,000 flights planned to test the aircraft’s avionics, radar, communications, weapons integration and other systems. These tests can be accomplished with the same efficiency though more cheaply in ground simulators and a flying software laboratory on board a Boeing 737 aircraft, Lockheed Martin said.
Christie disagreed. “Unfortunately, too often the solution to staying on schedule and under cost -- to include maintaining or building up management reserve funds for the inevitable unforeseen problems -- is to reduce test and evaluation,” he said in an e-mailed statement.
“History is replete with the consequences of this misguided thinking,” he said........