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JSF, warts and all, arriving here soon to begin testing
Work at base will help wring out any problems
Friday, Oct. 2, 2009
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After defense officials had finished answering a series of pre-selected questions at last week's panel discussion of the nascent Joint Strike Fighter at the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum in Lexington Park, the audience was allowed to ask a few of their own.
Retired Vice Adm. Jim Dorsey raised his hand and, once recognized, stated, "I didn't hear anything about warts."
Dorsey noted that Congress has been concerned about rumors that the Marine Corps version of the F-35 Lightning II could cause havoc on aircraft carrier flight decks with its short takeoff and vertical landing capability.
A recent Navy report warned that the plane's powerful downdraft could pose a hazard to both the integrity of carrier flight decks and the safety of their crews.
It was a tense moment for the panel, which had been gathered by the Patuxent Partnership to talk about the project Sept. 23, but was instructed to limit the public information session to unclassified information.
Cmdr. Mark Bruington of the Pentagon's Strike Aircraft Plans and Requirements program, fielded the question, admitting, "That is a concern."
Bruington said the Navy is working on "a mitigation strategy for all the flight decks" and will soon use land-based decks to test those strategies. However, Bruington said, he hadn't even briefed his superiors on these strategies, so he was not able to publicly reveal them.
The Marine JSF model, known as the F-35B, has faced other challenges in its development. Hover tests at Lockheed's Texas facility last month inspired tweaks to the jet's weapons bay doors and the integrated power package. However, during the first part of the panel discussion, officials were relentlessly positive about the project.
"The bones of the test plane are strong," said Steve Witherspoon, deputy for test and verification of Lockheed Martin's JSF Program, emphasizing the positive outcomes of the test flights.
Charlie Wagner, leader of the F-35 Air Vehicle Deputy and Weapons integrated project team for the Joint Program Office, noted that the JSF project's biggest challenge has been "getting a supersonic airplane to go up and down."
The process of working out bugs in the airplane has been complicated by the fact that the planes are already rolling off Lockheed's assembly lines before the Navy has even started formal testing.
We've done this do ourselves with this aircraft," Wagner said, noting that the Pentagon ordered the plane into production before testing was complete in order to boost the project's lagging schedule. "We've taken the chance on buying an airplane before we've really wrung them out."
The panel did not reveal the exact date that the eight test planes will be arriving here in the coming weeks, but Bruington said, "These jets are going to be showing up at Pax sooner than you think."
"This is worse than waiting for Christmas," Witherspoon said.
