New Pentagon Report: F-35 Performance Problems
y Assistant Secretary of Defense for Systems Engineering (DASD(SE)) Stephen Welby has published his FY2013 Annual Report addressing the systems engineering capabilities of the Department of Defense (DoD) and systems engineering activities relating to the Major Defense Acquisition Programs (MDAP)..........
Stephen Welby reports that:
The program is on track to meet seven of the eight KPPs. An issue with incorrect analysis/assumptions is hampering the attainment of the Sortie Generation Rate (SGR) KPP. The program office is examining the sensitivity of the SGR KPP to establish more operationally realistic ground rules and assumptions. As a result, the program plans to reassess SGR.
This is remarkable, because the JORD (requirement specifications) of the F-35 the key performance parameters (KPP) specifies about the (minimum) sortie rate:
- Sortie rate F-35A: 3 sorties per day
- Sortie rate F-35B: 4 sorties per day
- Sortie rate F-35C: 3 sortie........
OTHER KEY PERFORMANCE PARAMETERS
One could say: Key Performance Parameters (KPP) is the basic performance requirement by the F-35. Back in February 2012 the JROC (Joint Requirements Oversight Council) ordered the JSF Program Office to reconsider KPPs that some versions of the F-35 were to miss. This resulted in:
- F-35A combat radius target (objective was 690 miles, down to 580 miles)
- F-35B longer run allowed for short take-offs
- F-35C higher maximum landing speed
However, at this moment in time DASD(SE) concluded that:
Although on track, the combat radius, STOVL performance, and CV recovery KPPs have limited margins.
The sortie generation KPP is not as contracted; the logistics footprint KPP is in danger. The mission reliability KPP (minimum 93%), at this moment, has a long way to go.
The DOT&E report FY2013 (January 2014) found “Reliability is poor and ranges from 30 to 39 percent behind the current objective.
The “availability” of the existing fleet is getting worse and has never reached, is receding from, its quite modest threshold of 50 percent at this stage in the program. The amount of time needed to repair failures “has increased over the past year. ........