Misleading F-35 Answers Drafted by Pentagon, Testing Chief Says

Misleading F-35 Answers Drafted by Pentagon, Testing Chief Says
Tester Michael Gilmore outlines objections in internal memo
He says draft response to McCain underplays testing challenges
by Anthony Capaccio – Bloomberg – December 7, 2016 — 5:00 AM EST
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-07/misleading-f-35-answers-drafted-by-pentagon-testing-chief-says-iwerk3w8

Pentagon officials have been preparing a misleading assessment of progress
on Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35, the costliest U.S. weapons program, the
Defense Department’s chief tester warned.

“If not changed, the existing responses would at best be considered
misleading and at worst, prevarications,” Michael Gilmore, director of
operational test and evaluation, wrote in an internal memo criticizing the
draft response to questions about F-35 testing from Senate Armed Services
Committee Chairman John McCain.

Gilmore’s memo is the latest example of his vocal doubts about the F-35’s
performance in key tests. His critiques are at odds with the Pentagon’s
narrative that the program is on course after earlier problems.
President-elect Donald Trump and his defense secretary — he’s nominating
retired General James Mattis — will have to decide next year whether to
increase F-35 production to 70 in fiscal 2018 from 63 this year, as
requested by the Defense Department.

Trump, who on Tuesday complained that the cost of thenew Air Force One being
built by Boeing Co. “is totally out of control,” has also raised some
questions in the past about the F-35. In an October 2015 interview with
radio host Hugh Hewitt, Trump criticized the fighter’s cost and said he
heard “that it’s not very good” and that “existing planes are better.”

McCain’s Disappointment

In a Nov. 3 letter to departing Defense Secretary Ash Carter, McCain, an
Arizona Republican, said he was “extremely disappointed to learn of another
delay” in the $57 billion development and demonstration phase of the F-35
“with an associated cost overrun that may be upwards of $1 billion.”

Several of the answers in the draft response to McCain “ignore acknowledged
facts, are ambiguous and misleading and if signed and sent as-is” could
“generate substantial issues with the Congress,” Gilmore wrote to Frank
Kendall, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, in the Nov. 28 memo
obtained by Bloomberg News.

The draft answers should “be revised to provide clear, accurate and complete
answers,” said Gilmore, who also raised concerns about the F-35 in a Nov. 18
letter to Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work.

Gilmore “has shared his concerns” with Kendall who “has them for advisement
in his response to Senator McCain,” spokesman Mark Wright said in an e-mail.
Navy Lieutenant Commander Courtney Hillson, a spokeswoman for Work, said in
an e-mail that Gilmore’s information “was and continues to be used to help
senior leaders make informed decisions.”

Assertions Challenged

Gilmore challenged passages in the Defense Department’s draft response to
McCain that assert:

-The F-35’s development phase is due to end in “early 2018.” Gilmore said
the department should “state clearly that development flight testing will
not complete — at the earliest” — until mid-2018.

-Operational combat testing that all weapons systems must pass will start in
mid-2018 and be completed a year later. Gilmore labeled that “false.”
Instead, he said the tests will commence “no sooner than late 2018, or, more
likely, in early 2019 but could be as late as 2020.”

-An Air Force certification to lawmakers that F-35s delivered in fiscal 2018
will have full combat capability remains “valid.” Gilmore said that is
“highly unlikely” because of delays in testing the critical final version of
the plane’s software and correcting 276 pending deficiencies.

Live-fire testing of the jet’s gun system for attacking ground targets and
in dogfights against enemy jets faces new delays, Gilmore said. In flights
last month, symbols on the helmet display used by pilots to aim
air-to-ground attacks were “unusable and unsafe to complete the planned
testing.”

F-35 Office’s Comment

Joe DellaVedova, spokesman for the Pentagon’s F-35 program office, said in
an e-mail that “there have only been a couple of flights” where the
stability issue “was apparent, and the flight test data is still under
review to determine root cause.” Additional improvements were incorporated
in a software update released in November, and pilot evaluations are
planned.

Concerning the development phase’s status, DellaVedova said the program
office and Lockheed continue “to drive toward the completion of the test
program, including solutions” for the issues cited by Gilmore. The program
intends to complete all the flight-testing of the most capable software by
late 2017, with delivery of the capability to deployed aircraft from late
2017 to spring 2018, he said, although the schedule could slip about three
months.

Wingtips, Helmets

The Navy’s version of the plane, the F-35C, also has inadequate wing
strength, Gilmore said. Its wingtips aren’t strong enough to carry the
AIM-9X short-range air-to-air missile, a primary weapon, at some altitudes
and airspeeds. Testing on a fix is under way.

“This is a serious deficiency that would have restricted” F-35C flight with
the missile, Army Major Roger Cabiness, Gilmore’s spokesman, said in an
e-mail. The initial defect reports on the structural weaknesses surfaced in
2013 “so the Navy is not just learning about it, but the proposed fixes are
just now being implemented,” Cabiness said.

In addition, “excessive F-35 vertical oscillations,” or shaking, in catapult
launches from aircraft carriers must be resolved, Gilmore said.

The Navy has identified the shaking as a “must-fix deficiency’’ but “the
program waited so long to take action that it is unlikely a solution can be
implemented within” the development phase “unless a quick fix is developed
soon,” Cabiness said.
Rear Admiral Roy Kelley, director of the Navy’s F-35C integration office,
said in an e-mail that “we are confident that the program will address
discrepancies found and aggressively pursue the fixes.” Kelley said the
development phase “has identified a few F-35C specific discrepancies, to
include the load limitations for carriage of AIM-9X, as well as the vertical
oscillations during catapult launch.”

A potential fix for the wingtip limitations “has already been implemented
with the modification of the outer wing panel on F-35C,” Kelley said.

Source: http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=71843