While these signs of progress are encouraging, continued software problems with the aircraft’s Autonomic Logistics Information System, with the F-35’s advanced helmet (the aircraft has no head-up display), and other integrated pieces are preventing the Lightning II from gaining realistic combat capability. Added to these are concerns that herculean efforts to reduce the aircraft’s weight may lead to long-term structural problems, the seriousness of which will be unknown until operational use begins.
Lockheed Martin will largely have to use its own resources to correct the problems, as USAF then-Maj. Gen. (now Lt. Gen.) Christopher Bogdan, the incoming director of the F-35 program, told the annual Air Force Association conference in September:
An F-35 during high angle of attack testing at Edwards, AFB, Calif. While the F-35 makes significant progress in flight testing and training at Eglin AFB, questions still hang over the program. Lockheed Martin photo by Tom Reynolds
“There is no more money and no more time on this program. We will not go back and ask for more, simple as that.”
Elsewhere across the fighter spectrum, the Boeing F-15 line looks set to remain open for most of the next decade finishing F-15SG and F-15K orders for Singapore and South Korea. Japan’s selection of the F-35 was regarded as dimming prospects for further F-15 Silent Eagle sales to South Korea. Finalization of a $29.4 billion sale of 84 new F-15SAs and the update and refurbishment of 70 older F-15s for Saudi Arabia added to Boeing’s Eagle backlog. In July, the F-15 acquired more capability with successful weapons integration of the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), making it the sixth JASSM-ready platform.
Super Hornet production will continue through 2015, filling orders for the USN and Australia. The F-18E/F remains a competitor for fighter buys in Denmark, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Brazil, and Malaysia. Growler production continues as well. The Next Generation Jammer (NGJ), which is to give the EA-18G a leap in capability, is to be ready by 2020, provided by a single contractor. Four teams are competing to produce the jammer, which is increasingly being seen as enabling unmanned platforms rather than the F-35/F-18.
Lockheed and Boeing account for one-third of global fighter production and further F/A-18 and F-16 builds become more likely as the JSF program continues to bump along. In January, Iraq announced it would buy F-16s, followed by a November announcement that it would abandon a $4.2 billion arms deal with Russia that included helicopters, air defense systems, and MiG-29M/M2 fighters. In March, Lockheed Martin delivered the 4,500th F-16 (a Block 52) to Morocco. October saw the company land a contract to upgrade 145 F-16A/Bs to F-16V configuration (including active electronically scanned array [AESA] radar, upgraded electronic warfare [EW] capability, and embedded GPS) for Taiwan. Ongoing refurbishment of USAF F-16s continues as well, but Congress has since blocked the plans.
A Moroccan F-16 in flight in 2010. Lockheed Martin delivered its 4,500th F-16, a Moroccan Block 52, in March 2012. Photo by David Drais
In February, the U.S. Air Force announced plans to shut down six tactical aircraft squadrons with 123 fighters, including 102 A-10s and 21 F-16s. Sixty-five older C-130s and 27 C-5As seemed headed for the boneyard as well, but Congress has since blocked the plans.
Some of the savings would be used for upgrades, including AESA radar, for several aircraft types. Effective though scanned array radars are, in 2012 there was increasing concern about their vulnerability to cyberattack as Russian and Chinese makers design specific EW platforms to go after American E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS), RC-135 Rivet Joint, and P-8A maritime patrol assets. In response, the Air Force has accelerated work on the Advanced Tactical Data Link to retain operational capability, and is considering a possible shift to multiple lower-end manned ISR platforms like the Hawker Beechcraft King Air 350ER, various Gulfstream-based types, and even the Hawker Beechcraft G58 Baron.
The Dassault Rafale was selected as India’s Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft in February, giving the French fighter builder a lifeline. The month before, France had decreased its Rafale procurement to 11 units annually, inching to its 286 total. The 126-plane Indian order will see 18 Rafales built in France and the remainder built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in India. Finalization of the contract remained ongoing at year’s end, but no large hitches were expected, and there was even talk of a follow-up contract for an additional 63 aircraft.
A French air force Rafale aircraft breaks formation after refueling from a U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft assigned to the 351st Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron (EARS) over an undisclosed location, March 17, 2013. The 351st EARS completed the 100th refueling mission of French air force aircraft conducting operations over Mali. U.S. Air Force aircraft under U.S. Africa Command provided logistical support to French forces in support of France’s efforts to restore security in Mali. The Dassault Rafale was selected as India’s Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft. DoD photo by Capt. Jason Smith, U.S. Air Force
India, meanwhile, continues with its diversified aircraft sourcing, from the Boeing P-8A to the Sukhoi PAK FA/T-50. The latter continued its test program, fitted with an AESA radar in August. In October, India cut its order for the Russian fifth-generation fighter aircraft (FGFA) by one-third, now committing itself to 144 Indian-spec T-50s instead of 214. Their in-service debut is to be pushed back from 2017 to 2020 and they are all to be single-seaters. India’s indigenous Tejas Light Combat Aircraft made its first test flight but suffered from too much weight and too little power. A stealthy Mk. 3 version may eventually operate from Indian aircraft carriers.
Russia is moving forward with its own carrier strike force. Twenty MiG-29Ks and four two-seat MiG-29KUBs have also been ordered to replace Su-33s on Russia’s Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier. Russia also ordered 92 Sukhoi Su-34 long-range fighter/bombers for its air force, with deliveries to begin in 2015. At $3.4 billion, the March order was the largest placed by Russia’s MoD since the Soviet era, bringing the total number of improved Su-34s procured to 124. In November, Russian media surprisingly expressed mild disapproval of a $1.5 billion preliminary agreement to deliver 24 Sukhoi Su-35BMs to the Chinese air force, questioning whether the contract was worth the inevitable technology transfer to China.