The Clock’s Ticking

With some 280 F-35s of all variants are now in service or test and with several key program milestones recently achieved or due to occur in the next year, the DOT&E report was a timely return to reality with a thud for the JSF Program Office (JPO), prime contractor Lockheed Martin and its industry team, and for partner nations.

The report was tabled in November and covers the period from May 2016 to June 2017. In summary, it highlighted several key areas of risk in the program, including but not restricted to:

Continuing risk to the schedule to complete the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase and to start the Initial Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E), meaning the program will be unable to commence IOT&E with a full combat capability (Block 3F software load) until late 2018 or early 2019.

Continued delays in completing Block 3F mission system development and flight testing, and Weapons Delivery Accuracy (WDA) events.

Further delays in completing the GAU-25 gun testing for all three F-35 variants.

Continued shortfalls and delays with the Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS), and late delivery of ALIS version 3.0 which is at risk of slipping into mid-2018.

Continued low aircraft availability, especially for the early production lot IOT&E aircraft.

Delays in providing simulators in the Block 3F configuration.

And, other “significant, well-documented deficiencies” for which the program has no plan to fix and verify during SDD.

The Australian F-35 program head, Air Vice-Marshal Leigh Gordon has been keeping a close watching brief on the DOT&E report’s findings and the JPO’s response to it.

“In reality, we look at the report to confirm what we already know,” he told Australian Aviation. “We’ve got Australians embedded in the operational test team and embedded within the JPO monitoring what occurs there and the status of these things, and they’re contributing to the test plans that the Director of Operational Test & Evaluation approves as part of the activity.

‘We look at the report to confirm what we already know.’
Avm Gordon

“So, we look at the report to say, ‘Okay, is there anything new in here that we don’t know about?’,” he added. “And as with previous DOT&E reports, we’re quite comfortable that it captures issues that we know about, they’re status, and how they’re working through those.”

Encouragingly, most of the issues raised appear focussed on the JSF program rather than on the aircraft’s capabilities. Indeed, due to the period the report examines and the roughly six months it takes to compile, some of the issues identified may be as recent as six months, or as old as 18 months.

“Some of it might be 18 months old,” AVM Gordon said. “But I also expect that the freshest information could be more recent. For example, the last report made reference to the GAO (US Government Audit Office) report on the supply chain which I think was tabled in the second half of last year. But certainly, it takes a while to process through the system so it’s not necessarily current.”

AVM Gordon said that the concerns DOT&E has over slips in the program’s IOT&E schedule hasn’t yet affected Australia’s service introduction schedule.

“We’re still fortunate in having our planned IOC (initial operational capability) scheduled for December 2020, which allows the cooperative program enough time to address any significant issues,” he said. “Indeed, some of the comments in the DOT&E report actually represent capabilities that we’re adding for FOC (full operational capability), not IOC.”

We’re still fortunate in having IOC scheduled for December 2020.
Avm Gordon

One of the key capabilities for the RAAF at IOC is the Block 3F mission system software load. Block 3F has been a long time coming and has been phased in to various parts of the F-35 fleet in incremental stages, but system development and design (SDD) of 3F is due to be complete soon.

“I know that there are some comments in the report about limitations on weapons,” AVM Gordon said. “We’re expecting that the next software load that gets fielded, and it’s very, very close to fielding, will remove the vast majority of those limitations.

“It’s actually worth reinforcing that, a few years ago we were actually considering that Block 3i might have been the software load that we took to IOC,” he added.

The initial Block 1A/1B software load provided sufficient capability to conduct initial training and flight test work, while Block 2A added additional training modes, incorporated communications and sensor modes, provided higher security levels, and a broader flight envelope.

Blocks 2B and 3i provided the “initial warfighting capability” as adopted by the US Marine Corps on their F-35B IOC in 2016, and only differed in the hardware they were hosted on. Block 3F will have 100 per cent of the planned “full warfighting capability” software coding, and will provide more weapons options, more integrated sensor fusion and more datalinks, and embedded training.

“We’re very confident that it’ll be 3F,” AVM Gordon explained. “We’ve got to go backwards for it not to be 3F now, so 3F will be the software load we take to IOC.

“Going to IOC with Block 3F (instead of 3i) represents, I think, a significant element of risk being remediated from the original approval,” he added. “But, like any program and, even with in-service aircraft you find issues, and you’ve got to work through them and solve them. I’m given comfort by the way that the joint program is identifying these issues, putting them to bed, and moving on to the next issue.

“I certainly get a sense from the report this year of quite a constructive relationship and a constructive approach coming out of the DOT&E directorate over there. I think we do need to get through the OT&E where we can be assessing the aircraft against more contemporary threats, and then flowing what we learn back into the continuous capability development cycle – that’s the really important piece. The quicker we can do that, the quicker we can start that drum beat.

“I am particularly pleased that they’ve started doing some initial testing events,” AVM Gordon continued. “The deployment of a number of aircraft to Alaska for cold weather testing recently is, I think really quite positive.”

Apart from the Alaska cold weather tests over the northern winter, USMC F-35B from VFMA-121 and USAF F-35As from the 34th Fighter Squadron deployed late last year to the western Pacific for extended deployments, with the USMC embarking six of its F-35Bs aboard the LHD USS Wasp in early March for the type’s first operational ‘cruise’.

“I talked to the Deputy Commandant Aviation of the Marines at my last meeting round, and he was certainly comfortable with what the aircraft are doing over in Japan,” AVM Gordon explained. “I think it’s a good indication of the maturity of the capability that they’re able to do that deployment.”

The DOT&E report also highlighted affordability as being an ongoing issue for the program, in particular sustainment costs and high aircraft unavailability due to a lack of spares.

AVM Gordon agrees affordability remains a work in progress, but adds that Australia is contributing to the search for solutions. “We have contributed to the build-up of a global support system,” he said. “Indeed, we’ve sent some experts in performance-based contracting over to work with the JPO to outline what our latest thinking is about how the system gets into contract and how that performance flows down.

“There is a lot of focus on the cost of ownership of the F-35, and certainly everybody wants to understand it and see it reduced. The current program manager, Admiral Winter, really is attacking the cost of ownership of the F-35 down three fronts – development, production and sustainment, and in each of those they have war rooms that look at the cost and they’re targeting particular areas looking to reduce them.

“They’ve set cost reduction targets for the US Marines and the US Air Force that we’re trying to understand how it would apply to us,” AVM Gordon added. “One of the things that I’ve been doing personally, is trying to understand how different it is from a classic Hornet?”

AVM Gordon said the F-35 in many ways is more maintainable than the classic Hornet, and that its systems are also more reliable. “For example, the canopy on an F-35 tilts forward so they can just pull the ejection seat out,” he explained. “If you take the ejection seat out of a classic Hornet, you’ve got to take a canopy off, and when you put it back on you’ve got to shim it into place and then do pressurisation testing. That’s just a simple example of a task being easier.”

But the F-35 is a far more complex ‘system’ than the Hornet, with its advanced communications and sensors, most of which are embedded and integrated into the aircraft, as opposed to be carried in pods like many of the Hornet’s systems.

“That in itself is going to drive the level of complexity,” he explained. “Plus, the F-35 also has ALIS, this bigger IT footprint, is certainly something that’s different to a classic Hornet.”

ALIS, or the autonomic logistics information system, is considered by many to be the ‘long pole in the tent’ in terms of remaining risk to the program, a fact which the DOT&S identified as a major risk to the successful completion of SDD.

According to Lockheed Martin; ‘ALIS integrates a broad range of capabilities including operations, maintenance, prognostics, supply chain, customer support services, training and technical data. A single, secure information environment provides users with up-to-date information on any of these areas using web-enabled applications on a distributed network. ALIS serves as the information infrastructure for the F-35, transmitting aircraft health and maintenance action information to the appropriate users on a globally-distributed network to technicians worldwide.’

JPO director Vice Admiral Mat Winter has also identified ALIS as an ongoing issue, telling a media roundtable in late February that the system’s software has a large number of bugs which are giving indications of faults on parts that are actually fine, and thus was automatically ordering unnecessary new or replacement parts.

“Sustaining that fleet requires the appropriate spare parts, trained maintenance personnel, and the systems and the tools to be able to do that maintenance,” Winter said. “Likewise, we need a strong supply chain and supply base that can do repairables … as well as generate new parts for spares and new parts for production.”

Vice Adm Winter added that the issues appear to be more prevalent on early build jets where availability was sometimes below 50 per cent, and that later build post-Lot 9 jets were seeing much better availability. He said he expected the bugs to have been worked out in the ALIS Block 3.0 release due soon.

With six jets now flying and another four or so due to be delivered this year, the RAAF has two Lot 6 F-35s in service – AU-1 and AU-2 – both of which are undergoing depot level maintenance including hardware and software upgrades to bring them up to the latest Block 3F standard.

“From the data I’ve been able to look at, the more recent aircraft availability is better than the early aircraft,” AVM Gordon said. “So, a Lot 6 aircraft is better than a Lot 2 airplane. The GAO report identified half a dozen courses of action to address, improving reliability of some parts, standing up the maintenance depots, actually buying the spares in a smarter way rather than buying them to the Lot builds, and a few things like that.

AVM Gordon added that measures are already being put in place to better support Australia’s small but growing fleet, and that the RAAF’s five F-35As at the Luke AFB ITC probably enjoy better than average availability rates.

“We’re keen to minimise the likelihood of poor supply chain performance impacting our flying, particularly in those first two years when we’re back in Australia,” he said. “We don’t have many airplanes and they’re doing some important tasks, so we need to be able to fly them most times when we want to fly them to tip that ramp up off.”

Referring back to ALIS, AVM Gordon half-jokingly said the F-35 “is the first capability where you’ve got to have a sustainment model for the sustainment system.”

“The jet in itself is smarter,” he said. “In a lot of instances it will tell you what’s wrong. That’s where we want ALIS to go as a system, to be better at that prognostics and diagnostics. So, we’re expecting ALIS 3.0 will drop sometime this year, and that will certainly be supporting us in deploying our aircraft back to Australia in December. I don’t believe 3.0 will represent everything we expected in ALIS out of SDD, so there will need to be further iterations of ALIS.

‘The jet in itself is smarter.’
Avm Gordon

“But we can go to IOC with ALIS 3.0 if necessary,” he said. “The system has a huge amount of potential. If I think about the existing logistics systems that we have within Air Force and there’s a whole lot of training management functionality as well – this is all integrated in ALIS. The tool is already more capable than anything that we’ve got, but we can all see the potential of it.

The F-35 has been designed from the outset to be more supportable than 4th generation aircraft and associated systems. “Getting better aircraft health and usage information out of ALIS will allow us to make better decisions,” AVM Gordon said. “So, we certainly need to evolve ALIS as the aircraft evolves in order to realise its potential. I’m keen for us to be looking forward with that long-term view of where ALIS is going, and I think it’ll be a great asset.”

AVM Gordon also address sovereignty concerns over ALIS which surfaced last year, where Norway had reportedly expressed concern over the security information of its F-35A operations. “All of the partners are putting a gateway in to both protect the system and to control the flow of data across those networks,” he said. “I’m looking forward to the joint gateway being provided out of the project, and we’re closely monitoring that.

“We’re also looking at where we can partner with other nations to leverage off their gateways if they develop an individual one. The cooperative program gateway will maintain configuration with the weapons’ system as it evolves, and it’s important to get that in place. Certainly, we’re very keen for that to be squared away by IOC.”

The RAAF will also need to manage the different configurations of its F-35A fleet as they come into service. With 72 jets spread across seven or eight Lot builds, there will be different configurations of hardware and software spread across the fleet in the first few years of service. Apart from the original two Lot 6 jets, the next eight aircraft are Lot 10 builds, then there will be another eight in Lot 11, 15 F-35As in Lot 12, another 15 in Lot 13, a further 15 in Lot 14, and then nine in Lot 15.

“We’ve actually got the first one of the Lot 6 jets into the Ogden Centre depot at Hill AFB (in Utah) now being taken up to the 3F standard, which means it has a number of modifications including structural that will allow it to get to the 8,000 hours lifetime.”

The depot upgrades are expected to take about 19 weeks per aircraft initially, but this timing should come down markedly as corporate knowledge builds, and as later build aircraft requiring fewer modifications enter the depot rotation.

“We expect that we will be going through that modification process across the life of the platform,” he said, adding, “And interestingly, we don’t just have to focus on the airplanes and the lots that they’re in. It’s also important to be managing the simulators, ALIS, and the reprogramming lab to all be consistent with the aircraft’s configuration as well.”

In order to manage aircraft configurations, the JPO is reportedly looking to change the F-35’s modernisation approach to make it a more rapid and seamless process, although the plan appears to lack definition.

“The JPO talks about this Continuous Capability, Development and Delivery, or C2D2 process,” AVM Gordon explained. “I see one of the benefits of that is more rapid changes which focus more on software drops than hardware, and that will make it easier for us to manage the configuration as we ramp up.

“Certainly, it’s something that’s important for us to keep on. Right at the moment thought, we recognise that our aircraft are going to be in different lots and we’re making provisions for when we expect upgrades would have to occur.

“I think that’s the continuous capability, development, and delivery will be that battle rhythm for the life of the capability,” he added. “The block for capabilities that people have talked about before, we want to deliver those through a C2D2 approach that just keeps continuing.

‘We want to deliver those capabilities through a C2D2 approach’.
Avm Gordon

“Being an engineer, I want to make sure that reliability and maintained ability get folded in, improvements to ALIS get folded in, improvements to reprogramming. It’s going to be this cycle. The Super Hornet has a spiral upgrade path, and we want to capture the essence of that on a platform that’s probably a bit more complex.”

With the Block 3F capability expected to be what Australia achieves IOC with and will likely take through to FOC, the partner nations are already on the path to defining what capabilities Block 4 and beyond will entail. But, like Blocks 2 and 3, instead of being one massive drop Block 4 will likely again be an incremental one.

“We’ve already started to exercise that process of capturing requirements and prioritising them,” AVM Gordon explained. “That’s how we ended up with what the requirements would be for Blocks 4.1 and 4.2. On the way into the process it’s got to go through the system’s engineering process and have the changes designed.

“If we go to the C2D2 type approach, then some of the capabilities will come earlier,” he added. “Our FOC is December 2023 so it’s in that ballpark, but there might be some things afterwards and there will be things earlier. Indeed, we might have the discretion to contribute to the mod being developed, and then make a choice when we deploy it in our aircraft. We might have the ability to do that.”

In the meantime, the first major task for the RAAF F-35 team when the jets return home in December will be to conduct its own OT&E, more properly known as validation & verification.

“In broad terms, we initially need to verify and validate that we can operate the aircraft in Australia and do all of the things around operating the aircraft locally,” AVM Gordon said. “Being able to manipulate it on ALIS, line it up with mission data falls, do all those sorts of things.”

After that, the RAAF will run one or two pilot courses locally to test and refine the courseware and structure, before starting local pilot training.

“We’ll start looking at how we’re going to train the air crew here,” he added. “Air Force will initially conduct a course with students who are quite competent to work through how the system will work, and then they’ll do another course which will be more representative of the real course that will be delivered from 2021.

“My little clock on the wall tells me how many days it is until that day in December when the first two jets arrive,” AVM Gordon said in closing. “This year is a really busy year to get to that point, and then the next two years are the important ones where we actually build our capability.”