Full weapons tester report highlights F-35 availability, software program issues

WASHINGTON — Lagging availability charges, flareups of recent software program issues, and a cussed variety of open deficiencies plagued the troubled and repeatedly delayed F-35 fighter in 2021, based on a newly-revealed model of the Pentagon’s weapons tester’s report.

For the primary time, the Workplace of the Director, Operational Take a look at and Analysis in January solely launched to the general public an “uncontrolled” model of its annual report. Particulars about shortfalls in key packages have been relegated to a “managed” — however nonetheless unclassified — version stored from the general public.

The watchdog group Mission on Authorities Oversight obtained, and final week posted on-line, the managed report, which fleshes out among the issues hinted at within the publicly launched model.

Dan Grazier, a navy analyst for POGO and a vocal critic of the F-35 program, stated in a March 11 interview the Pentagon’s secrecy on this report is troubling and undermines the effectiveness of its testing workplace.

“The Pentagon did go to essentially extraordinary lengths to attempt to cover these particulars,” Grazier stated. “That’s not the way in which that is imagined to work.”

And in a March 9 submit on POGO’s weblog, Grazier stated the report reveals “stagnation and even backsliding” in some areas used to measure the fleet’s reliability.

Lt. Gen. Eric Fick, program govt officer for the F-35 Joint Program Workplace, stated in a March 8 roundtable with reporters, earlier than POGO posted the total report, that 2021 was “a reasonably good yr for this system, regardless of the entire chaos that appeared to encompass it.”

He pointed to the 142 F-35s this system delivered in 2021, beating the purpose of 139 fighters, for example of progress — however acknowledged points remained with engine manufacturing and the power to carry out vital simulation exams essential for a call on full-rate manufacturing.

Among the F-35′s largest remaining issues highlighted by the total DOT&E report have been:

• The F-35′s availability remains to be lagging, and an absence of spare elements and fully-functional engines has damage it.

The F-35 noticed a “program excessive peak” in plane availability in January 2021, the managed model of the report stated, when it hit 70%. However through the yr, the report stated, availability charges “plateaued,” and in June began to slip earlier than hitting a low of 53% in September. All through fiscal 2021, all the F-35 fleet averaged 61% availability, under its goal of 65%. The F-35 has constantly stayed above 50% availability since December 2018.

Of the common 39% unavailable at any given time, 15% have been down for upkeep, 16% have been ready on spare elements and one other 8% have been present process depot upkeep.

The report stated the progress the F-35 made earlier than June was as a result of two elements: an inflow of recent plane that didn’t require time within the depots, and a program effort specializing in rising the supply of spare elements.

That spare elements improve didn’t final, nevertheless, and the report stated the post-June decline was largely as a result of spare elements weren’t accessible once they wanted. In a newly-revealed passage, the DOT&E report stated 15% of the F-35 fleet was sidelined as a result of an absence of spare elements in Might 2021. By December, a full quarter of the fleet was down for that purpose.

Grazier wrote on POGO’s web site this has very troubling implications for the navy’s capability to constantly preserve the F-35 able to fly.

“What which means is the F-35 didn’t out of the blue turn into a extra dependable plane in 2021,” Grazier wrote. “It signifies that it takes extraordinary effort to maintain the fleet working even near the required ranges and means that these availability charges will not be sustainable long-term.”

Fick acknowledged the drop in F-35 mission succesful charges March 9 on the McAleese Protection Packages Convention in Washington March 9, however pledged to handle the basis causes of the issues that led to that readiness decline, together with a scarcity of F135 energy modules.

Fick additionally stated on the occasion the F-35 program is taking a number of actions to enhance the well being of the fleet, together with preserving elements on the plane longer, guaranteeing sufficient spare elements are available when these elements fail, and bolstering restore capability for a rising fleet.

“No program is ideal, and a program as complicated because the F-35 will at all times have challenges,” Fick stated. “However none of those challenges are insurmountable.”

The JPO declined to touch upon info from the managed model of the report.

However that personal model went into additional element on the scarcity of absolutely useful F135 engines, worsened by an absence of depot restore capability, that additional drove down availability charges. This was significantly felt by the F-35A, the report stated.

One week in June, there have been 38 F-35s down awaiting a working engine. By the final full week of the fiscal yr, there have been 52 F-35s ready for an engine.

The providers attempt to handle the scarcity of engines by giving combat-coded models the precedence to get spares over check and coaching models, the report stated — however the scarcity has however hit deployed models as nicely. The U.S. navy’s 214 combat-coded F-35s averaged 70% availability all through 2021, however that quantity dipped as little as 63% at one level.

After highlighting the progress made in plane manufacturing within the March 8 briefing, Fick acknowledged the propulsion facet was “not fairly as nice of a narrative.” This system hoped to ship 159 engines final yr, however solely produced 152, all however 4 of which have been late.

Fick stated not one of the late engines led to late supply of a manufacturing plane, however this system is working with Pratt & Whitney to get its engine deliveries again on schedule. Fick stated the COVID pandemic — significantly greater charges of absenteeism — had an enormous impact on this system’s capability to ship engines on time.

• Its software program packages aren’t being examined correctly for hidden bugs — and, in at the least one case, a system that was working tremendous received damaged when a brand new functionality was added elsewhere.

The F-35 program’s developmental check groups haven’t been funded sufficient to do the fitting exams, knowledge evaluation or regression exams on new software program earlier than it’s delivered, the report stated.

In a passage omitted from the general public model, the report stated capabilities for the AIM-120 Superior Medium-Vary Air-to-Air Missile, or AMRAAM, that had been engaged on an earlier model of software program broke when the event staff tried so as to add capabilities for one more weapon.

The F-35′s strategy to software program improvement within the Block 4 modernization effort, known as Steady Functionality Improvement and Supply, or C2D2, goals to develop, check and roll out software program updates containing small batches of recent capabilities or fixes to deficiencies each six months, as an alternative of taking years to develop and ship all the mandatory capabilities without delay.

However this strategy has “confirmed unsustainable,” the report stated, and the F-35 Joint Program Workplace prolonged that timeline of updates from each six months to annually.

This strategy of incremental updates “usually launched stability issues,” or led to issues with different capabilities, the report stated. This meant operational check models and discipline models in lots of circumstances have been those to seek out the issues — generally vital operational deficiencies — with the software program updates. Final yr, operational check groups discovered issues with the F-35′s weapons, fusion communications and navigation, cybersecurity and focusing on processes.

Grazier stated this demonstrates the issue with fielding an plane whose design isn’t full.

“Should you’re going to have a software-driven design, you higher make it possible for unique software program is the 95% resolution,” Grazier stated. “Even with easy packages, once you begin making adjustments in software program in a single place, you might be very seemingly creating issues someplace else that have been unanticipated. So that you higher make it possible for your unique model is fairly near what you want — significantly earlier than you begin constructing a whole lot and a whole lot of them.”

Fick stated that as a result of a holdup of funding in fiscal 2021, this system needed to quickly droop a lot of the program’s Block 4 improvement, aside from vital components reminiscent of digital warfare configurations. The arrival of funds in 2022 allowed this system to renew “the lion’s share” of Block 4 improvement, Fick stated.

JPO spokeswoman Laura Seal stated in a March 16 e mail the workplace “has delivered quite a few new capabilities and sustainment enhancements using the C2D2 agile assemble.”

“The JPO has taken suggestions from our testers and clients and used it to enhance the way in which we ship software program,” Seal stated. “To this finish, the F-35 enterprise has made vital progress in reworking into an agile supply enterprise. In the end, the F-35 program delivers software program on a warfighter-relevant timeline and our warfighters determine to take the software program based mostly on their assessment of the advantages of incorporating this software program into their fleets.

• The variety of deficiencies has barely budged, as a result of new issues preserve popping up.

Final yr, the DOT&E report tallied the variety of open F-35 deficiencies at 871, 10 of which have been Class 1 deficiencies, probably the most severe.

That improved in fiscal 2021 — however not by a lot. The F-35 had 845 open deficiencies, together with six Class 1 deficiencies, on the finish of the fiscal yr. That quantity was not shared with the general public till POGO launched the managed model of the report.

The report stated F-35 program is engaged on addressing issues which have been recognized through the system improvement and demonstration course of. However the variety of deficiencies isn’t shrinking considerably as a result of new issues proceed to be discovered.

By March 1, based on the newest figures from the JPO, that quantity had grown once more to 873 complete open deficiencies. That features 5 Class 1B deficiencies, which might critically have an effect on mission readiness and preserve a mission from being achieved, though there are not any open 1A deficiencies that pose a danger to the pilot’s life or a lack of the plane.

Seal stated a lot of the new deficiency stories stem from points that emerged in new capabilities added to the F-35. The JPO closed 171 deficiency stories in 2021, she stated.

“Warfighters have assessed that acceptable mitigations exist for the remaining deficiencies,” Seal stated. “Deficiency decision is an ongoing effort, and deficiencies are resolved in live performance with warfighters’ prioritization and useful resource allocation.”

She additionally stated the potential results of open deficiencies on missions or operations are documented in pilot manuals and coaching supplies.

However Grazier stated that the continuous discovery of recent issues means 2021′s decline to 845 open deficiencies shouldn’t be seen as an indication of success.

“It seems like they’re making enhancements, however actually it’s one step ahead and two-thirds of a step again,” Grazier stated.