Reuters published an interview yesterday with NAVAIR's RADM Harrah, excerpted below:
"“We’re going as fast as we can possibly go to ensure that we
get that done quickly, but not so fast that we mess up some
critical aspect of this,” Darrah said in an interview on
Wednesday.
“It’s just a matter of ensuring that we do the right thing,”
he said. “This is an engine that needs to perform properly
throughout its entire life cycle.”
Darrah said he had never seen the underlying technical issue
- which involved excessive rubbing of two parts in the F135
engine that led to chemical changes in their composition – but
remained confident that it could ultimately be resolved.""
Note the part about the technical issue [chemical changes in the blade due to excess heating] never being experienced before.
"Darrah, who previously held leadership roles on the F-35
program and the Boeing F/A-18 program, said any new aircraft
engine faced technical challenges, but this incident was
different given the scale of the program – which will be used by
three U.S. military services – and the huge size of the motor,
the most powerful U.S. fighter engine ever built.
He said the companies and military officials involved had
worked closely together to tackle the engine issue. “
This is an
all-hands-on-deck effort.”"
"Joe DellaVedova, spokesman for the F-35 program office, had
no immediate comment on when the analysis of the root cause of
the incident, and the proposed solution, would be completed, but
said officials were getting closer.
“We’re nearing the end of that process,” DellaVedova said."
U.S. Navy underscores need for 'lasting fix' for F-35 engine issue | Reuters
Darrah's tone makes the problem with the F135 appear more serious than originally reported - and downplayed - by Pentagon acquisition, program, and contractor leadership - certainly not an "one-off" incident. Officials were predicting a root cause to be determined by the end of September... and that timeframe was later than initially predicted after the accident.
The investigation is beginning to be uncomfortably long in duration....