95
Initial Operational Test and Evaluation
(IOT&E), was to run until October 2013...
However, less than a year later in February
2010, Heinz took the bullet for a poorly
performing F-35 as the then US Defense
Secretary Robert Gates got tough. Gates
announced that he was withholding $614m
in performance awards to Lockheed Martin,
he was putting the F-35B on probation, and
a restructuring process was announced
for the SDD phase, adding some 13 months
of testing at a cost of $2.8bn. Gates also
deferred some early-production aircraft
to pay for the additional testing. This last
move went totally against the basic premise
of the F-35 production plan – to ramp up
manufacture as quickly as possible. Aircraft
from the first Low-Rate Initial Production
(LRIP) batch were added to the SDD phase
as development testing was slipped to 2015.
The restructuring had a profound effect,
and despite the creeping delays, the F-35
started ticking off notable milestones on
an almost daily basis. Statistics showed
vastly improved flying rates, however, while
the F-35B for example flew more missions
than were annually scheduled, it lagged
behind its target for overall test points.
By 2012, the new US Secretary of Defense
Leon Panetta lifted the F-35B’s probation
and in so doing recognised the progress
the F-35B made in flight testing after
resolving five major technical problems that
sidelined the variant for nearly all of 2010.The final push
The annual reports from the Office of the
Director, Operational Test and Evaluation
(OT&E) have always made sobering reading
for those who have closely followed the F-35
project. They regularly voiced concerns
over a lack of maturity for the F-35 and
the need for pilots and maintainers to find
ways to circumnavigate problems. For
example, the Block 2B flight envelope
testing included operations with the
weapons bay doors open. The programme
discovered dynamic flight loads on
portions of the open doors were higher
than expected, requiring additional
instrumentation and testing. The testABOVE: The F-35 underwent climatic testing at the McKinley Climatic Laboratory at Eglin AFB,
Florida. Lockheed Martin RIGHT: The F-35B carried out three periods of embarked development
testing on amphibious assault carriers. This shot shows the Lift-Fan to good effect. Lockheed
Martin BELOW: The Integrated Test Force pilot team attached to VX-23 at NAS Patuxent River,
Maryland, in 2013. Lockheed Martin/Michael D Jackson
ABOVE: The US Marine Corps is relying on
the F-35B/C to replace both its Harrier II
and Hornet fleets. Lockheed Martin