BULLHORN #91 
5 December 2011

ANAers, friends of ANA and Naval Aviation,

The Super Committee failed to find the “fix” to the budget and debt dilemma and DC and our legislatures are abuzz with all kinds of speculation, from forecasts of doom under sequestration to some seeing far less impact.  None of the speculation is worth repeating now, given the immaturity of the debate and the time remaining to enact whatever will finally become “the fix”.

That said, there most assuredly will still be tremendous consequence to the military budget.  In addition to near-draconian cuts already made, our military will see even more drastic reductions, whether in this coming or the next budget year.

Now is the time for our voices to be heard.  While it is unrealistic for anyone to think the Navy budget can be spared, we can work to try to be sure whatever reductions are made will be done smartly, looking at the whole of the Navy – and Naval Aviation as the foremost force for the security of our country. 

The facts are simple: 

The earth is covered mostly by water.  More than 90% of trade goes by sea and 95% of telecommunications resources remain under the oceans.  The majority of the populations live within 200 miles of the shores of the oceans and seas.

Upon those oceans and seas only the Navy and Marine Corps sail, with Naval Aviation able to quickly project power with forward deployed forces to maintain the security of the sea lines of communication or take the fight to an enemy, all without the need for forward bases and other encumbrances, such as diplomatic permission for overflight.  Only the Navy can take its own airfields to the far-flung corners of the earth – Naval Aviation and amphibious forces taking the fight to the enemy, engaging and defeating him as far from our shores as possible.

Now is the time for our voices to be heard.  Get the word out!  We must make sure our friends, our political leadership, everyone knows fully the capabilities inherent in Navy forces - with Naval Aviation - to show the Flag for peace throughout the world and to project power to protect our interests, our security and safety. 

VR,

Dutch
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INDEX

Status of the Navy

Where is the Navy??

Association of Naval Aviation on facebook

Naval Aviation Medal of Honor Awardee at Centennial Commemoration

The “BIG ‘E’ “ is 50!

Maritime Patrol Association

Fleet Logistics Support In the News

Vinson Deploys Again After 5 Months

An Old War Horse In New Paint

Budget Talk

New Capabilities for the Hornet from Boeing

More P8 POSEIDONS

UK Harriers to the Marine Corps

F35 NEWS

Boeing Unmanned Cargo Helicopter

STATUS OF THE NAVY

 

December 2, 2011Status of the Navy

Navy Personnel

Active Duty:   324,466

          Officers:   52,981

          Enlisted:   266,970

          Midshipmen:   4,515

Ready Reserve:   102,902 [As of 11 Oct 2011 ]

          Selected Reserves: 64,574

          Individual Ready Reserve: 38,328

Reserves currently mobilized:   4,563 [As of 01 Dec 2011]

Personnel on deployment:   48,959

Navy Department Civilian Employees:   203,952

Ships and Submarines

Deployable Battle Force Ships: 284

          Ships Underway (away from homeport): 151 ships (53% of total)

          On deployment: 109 ships (38% of total)

          Attack submarines underway (away from homeport): 19 subs (35%)

          On deployment: 17 subs (31%)

Ships Underway

          Aircraft Carriers:

              USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) - Pacific Ocean

              USS George Washington (CVN 73) - 7th Fleet

              USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) - 5th Fleet

              USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) - Atlantic Ocean

          Amphibious Assault Ships:

              USS Wasp (LHD 1) - Atlantic Ocean

              USS Essex (LHD 2) - port visit Manila

              USS Bataan (LHD 5) - 5th Fleet

              USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) - Atlantic Ocean

              USS Makin Island (LHD 8) - Pacific Ocean

Aircraft (operational): 3700+

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Where is The Navy   ?

Here is another look at our forces taken last week

US NAVAL UPDATE MAP 30NOV11

from STRATFOR www.stratfor.com

The Naval Update Map shows an approximation of the current locations of U.S. Carrier Strike Groups (CSGs) and Amphibious Ready Groups (ARGs), the keys to U.S. dominance of the world’s oceans. A CSG is centered on an aircraft carrier, which projects U.S. naval and air power and supports a carrier air wing (CVW). The CSG includes significant offensive strike capability. An ARG is centered on three amphibious warfare ships, with a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) embarked. An MEU is built around a heavily reinforced and mobile battalion of Marines.

Carrier Strike Groups

The USS John C. Stennis CSG with CVW 9 embarked is under way in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility (AOR) conducting maritime security operations and support missions as part of Operations Enduring Freedom and New Dawn.

The USS George H.W. Bush CSG with CVW 8 embarked is under way in the U.S. 6th Fleet AOR after having completed five months of combat operations in the U.S. 5th Fleet AOR.

The USS Carl Vinson CSG with CVW 17 embarked is under way on a deployment to the U.S. 5th Fleet AOR.

Amphibious Ready Groups/Marine Expeditionary Units

The USS Bataan ARG with the 22nd MEU embarked is supporting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet AOR.

The USS Essex ARG with the 31st MEU embarked arrived in Manila for a scheduled port visit during its deployment to the western Pacific region and the Indian Ocean.

The USS Makin Island with the 11th MEU arrived in the U.S. 7th Fleet AOR during its maiden deployment to the western Pacific region.

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Association of Naval Aviation on facebook

ANA is getting ‘hip’.  Find ANA on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Association-of-Naval-Aviation/174736945911156

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Naval Aviation Medal of Honor Awardee at Centennial Commemoration

CAPT Thomas Hudner, USN (Ret)

WASHINGTON (Dec. 1. 2011)

Medal of Honor recipient retired Capt. Thomas Hudner salutes while taps is played during the Centennial of Naval Aviation wreath laying ceremony at the United States Navy Memorial in Washington D.C. Hudner received the medal of honor for his attempted rescue of Ens. Jesse Brown during the Korean War. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Mikelle D. Smith (Released) 111201-N-KQ655-136

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USS ENTERPRISE HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Find a great video anout the USS ENTERPRISE at

Celebrating 50 years at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDx2OENiuGk&feature=youtu.be

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MARITIME PATROL ASSOCIATION

You are invited to http://www.maritimepatrolassociation.org/ , on which, in part, it says:

The Maritime Patrol Association (MPA) is proud to be the new premier, non-profit professional organization for the MPRF community. Like other organizations do for the helicopter and jet communities, MPA will provide recognition and enhance the prestige of the MPR community by bringing together the power and support of our members and its industry partners.

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Fleet Logistics Support In the News

The Navy's newest C-40A Clipper transport aircraft is backed into the hangar at Fleet Logistics Support Squadron (VR) 57 at Naval Air Station North Island after its inaugural flight from Wichita, Kan. This is the 12th C-40A the Navy has received since 2001. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Ron Kuzlik/Released)

For lots more on this great acquisition see the next issue – Winter 2011 - of Wings of Gold

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Vinson Deploys Again After 5 Months At Home

(NAVY TIMES 30 NOV 11) ... Gidget Fuentes

NAVAL AIR STATION NORTH ISLAND, Calif. — Just over five months after returning home, the carrier Carl Vinson headed back to sea Wednesday for another deployment.

Carl Vinson pulled away from its berth at Naval Air Station North Island and headed out of San Diego Bay about noon, a departure delayed three hours by thick fog and an unexpected “minor” steering control problem that a ship’s spokesman said was quickly resolved.

It was June 15 when the Vinson returned home following a scheduled deployment that culminated with the ship supporting the mission to capture Osama bin Laden. After bin Laden was killed by Navy SEALs in his compound in Pakistan, his body was flown to Carl Vinson, where a team conducted a burial-at-sea that remains classified.

Officials said the ship’s quick turnaround and shorter time at home had been part of the Navy’s broader Fleet Response Plan that provides flexible, ready forces and a persistent forward presence.

“The sailors of this strike group have trained hard to be ready for warfighting, and they are ready to go do their job,” Rear Adm. Thomas K. Shannon, who commands Carrier Strike Group 1, said before boarding the ship that will serve as his flagship for the deployment.

The deployment will be the second consecutive year that many in Carl Vinson’s crew will be separated from their families over the winter holidays.

“We have been working up to it ... and they are prepared to go,” said Carl Vinson’s commanding officer, Capt. Bruce Lindsey. “It’s our turn right now.”

All that planning was little consolation to Carl Vinson’s families, who braced for the prospect of another goodbye but craved more family time together.

Navy wife Barbara Patton was eight months pregnant when she stood at the pier and kissed her husband goodbye exactly one year ago — Nov. 30, 2010. In June, the ship’s homecoming marked the first time Logistics Specialist Seaman Corachel Patton met his infant daughter, Carly, who was born on Christmas Day.

Early Wednesday, Barbara Patton waited again for Carl Vinson to pull away from its berth, this time with Carly at her side. “It’s probably a little harder, having a child,” said Patton, 22, a Chicago native.

Barbara Patton said she and her husband tried to spend as much time together and maximize their time at home, which included some coveted “daddy leave” the Navy provides to new fathers in addition to annual leave. “We tried to do as much as possible,” she said.

Carl Vinson, with a crew of nearly 2,950 and embarked air wing of almost 1,500, take on several dozen fighter jets and other aircraft of its air wing over the next day or so before heading to 7th Fleet. Then sailors will gather for a change-of-command ceremony at sea to bid farewell to Lindsey, who has commanded Vinson for three years. Capt. Kent “Torch” Whalen will take the helm as the new commanding officer.

The ship then will continue onto 5th Fleet, operating in the Middle East region on a deployment the skipper said is scheduled to last almost six months.

Also deploying as part of Carrier Strike Group 1 are the cruiser Bunker Hill and destroyer Halsey, both based in San Diego. Vinson’s air wing includes Strike Fighter Squadrons 22, VFA-25, VFA-81 and VFA-113; Electronic Attack Squadron 134; Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 125; and Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 15.

Broadcast Clip - Carrier USS Carl Vinson Departs

(KSND NBC SAN DEIGO 30 NOV 11) Lauren Steussy and Kelly McPherson

Families say goodbye to Sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson Wednesday morning, which departs for the Middle East from Coronado.

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AN OLD WAR HORSE RESTORED

Douglas A-3D Skywarrior Restoration: From Airport Eyesore to Airport Pride

From:

To this:

Check it out at

http://www.navyhistory.org/2011/10/douglas-a-3d-skywarrior-restoration-from-airport-eyesore-to-airport-pride/

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BUDGET BATTLES and BUDGET TALK

SECDEF ON SEQUESTRATION

By Philip Ewing Wednesday, November 16th, 2011 1:52 pm
Posted in Rumors

You never know what’s going to break through all the noise.

Secretary Panetta’s letter this week to Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina resonated with the Washington and national media, even though it contained nothing he, Gen. Dempsey and other top DoD and armed services advocates haven’t already been shouting from the rooftops.

McCain even thanked Panetta at Tuesday’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing for finally including specifics about the potential consequences of budget sequestration — even though his letter said nothing definitive about what will happen. It raised the prospect that DoD could eliminate the F-35, the Air Force’s new bomber, the Littoral Combat Ship, the Ground Combat Vehicle, on and on and all the rest of it — an eye-grabbing list of programs with support across the Hill. Think tanks and white-paperists have been grinding out almost this same litany for more than a year. Nothing on it was surprising.

Not only that, Panetta’s warning about the Navy and Air Force has already come true. If sequestration went into effect, he wrote, the Navy would have its smallest fleet since 1915. Well, it already does, and two consecutive chiefs of naval operations have been using that same talking point since 2009. Panetta warned sequestration would leave the Air Force with its smallest fleet ever. Well, its fleet of tactical aircraft already has been shrinking and aging for years, and if you took away its only lifelines — the F-35A and the new bomber — no wonder the situation would get worse.

In fact, smaller, older fleets are just the tip of the iceberg. Even before the debt ceiling and the super committee and the Doomsday Device, many skeptics doubted that either service could actually afford its plans for the coming decades. As we’ve talked about many times before, the Navy projects that it’s going to start running out of surface ships and submarines in the 2020s, faster than it can replace them. That’s assuming it could even afford any other ships besides its planned Ohio-replacement ballistic missile submarines. And the Air Force has to find a way to deal with the “bow wave” caused by its KC-46A tankers, F-35As and new next-generation bombers all coming into full production at around the same time. (Plus it’s going to have to replace Air Force One and who knows what else.)

In short, even with the normal budget growth the Pentagon had been counting on, the Navy and Air Force were in a dire fix. So if anything, Panetta is under-selling the potential danger of sequestration to the Navy and Air Force — rare indeed amid this fall’s budget hyperventilation around Washington. Maybe that’s politically wise; giving the full story might have prompted people to ask how the services could have emerged from a decade of record defense spending with smaller, older fleets.

The defense game already was complex and confusing, and the past few months have only deepened the feeling of vertigo. Panetta and President Obama are repeating to Asian allies that the U.S. is locked in as a stabilizing partner for the long-term. American Marines and airmen will be spending a lot more time in Australia. And yet Washington appears to be on the brink of gutting services that already were in a tricky spot to begin with. Would Congress and the administration really let it happen?

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DefenseNews.com
Service Leaders Defend MV-22, STOVL F-35B

By Dave Majumdar

The U.S. industrial base will be severely and irreversibly damaged if unique aircraft such as the U.S. Marines' short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing F-35B stealth fighter and MV-22 tilt-rotor are terminated, the service's top uniformed leaders said.

"The two capabilities that are being solely built throughout the world, the only place it's being built is the United States of America, and that's tilt-rotor technology and that's the short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing F-35B. There is not another nation in the world," said Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos, testifying before Congress on Nov. 2. "If those lines were closed, that becomes terminal. That becomes irreversible. You will not be able to gain that back."

The same is true of Navy shipbuilding programs, Amos said.

U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Greenert said he was particularly concerned about the naval nuclear propulsion industry.

Although the F-35 is vital to the U.S. Defense Department's tactical fighter fleet, the country still has the F/A-18, F-16 and F-15E production lines, said Air Force Lt. Gen. Herbert "Hawk" Carlisle, that service's deputy chief for operations, plans and requirements.

"In the near term, those are still part of the industrial base," he said.

But Carlisle said the Air Force must get the F-35 into service to recapitalize its fighter fleet.

"We have to have that airplane," he said. "As we continue to see success, I think I'll gain more and more confidence in our ability to let loose that industrial base."

Carlisle called the F-35 a "great" aircraft.

"I think it's making progress," he said.

Although the F-35's initial operational capability date may slip by up to two years to 2014 for the Marines, and 2018 for the Air Force and Navy, the test program for the aircraft is ahead of schedule for the year.

The Marines' F-35B has made huge strides since the jet was put on a two-year probation by then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Recently, the F-35B aircraft completed a set of nearly flawless sea trials, said Marine Lt. Gen. Terry Robling, the Marine Corps' deputy commandant of aviation.

The F-35B is ahead of schedule on its flight-testing for the year, and the five major engineering problems with the plane have been solved, Amos said. Those fixes are either already installed on the test fleet or will be installed early next year, he said.

In an era of shrinking budgets, the addition of the F-35B to the naval aviation arsenal will effectively double the number of available aircraft carriers, Amos said. The large-deck amphibious assault ships essentially become small carriers with the F-35B embarked, he said.

Concerns about the jet blast from the F-35B's power engine damaging the assault ships' flight decks have proved unfounded, Amos said. Thus far, the analysis is showing "shockingly negligible" impact on the ship's deck, he said.

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Norfolk Virginian-Pilot
Chairman Of House Panel Won't Support Cuts To Carriers

By Bill Bartel, The Virginian-Pilot

NEWPORT NEWS--The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said Friday he won't support reducing the number of aircraft carriers as the Pentagon considers where to trim hundreds of billions from its budget.

After taking a tour of Newport News Shipbuilding, U.S. Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon said the Navy's fleet of 11 carriers, which will drop temporarily to 10 late next year, is vital to preserving worldwide commerce and guard against threats.

"I don't want to see it go below that until they can show me the world is safer," the California Republican said.

Without mentioning China by name, McKeon said the United States has to be able to overcome any potential threats. The Chinese are building up their naval force and recently sent their first aircraft carrier on sea trials.

"When you weaken yourself, you open up possibilities for those who would like to challenge you to take risks to challenge you. We don't want to do that," McKeon said. "We don't want to send our people into any fair fights. We want to have the power that puts them in the least harmful situation so that they can return safely."

Standing outside the shipyard's corporate offices with the carrier Theodore Roosevelt behind him, McKeon said the Navy plays a critical role in the nation's economy by keeping the sea lanes open for commerce.

"Without that presence that we've had around the world, we probably wouldn't have the type of lifestyle that we've enjoyed all these years since World War II," he said. "I don't want to see that end."

Although the Navy has not made any public statements, some news reports have stated that internal discussions of defense cuts have included considering reducing the number of carriers and delaying construction of the next Ford-class carrier, the John F. Kennedy.

Defense News reported last month that discussions in the Pentagon included possibly decommissioning the George Washington, now based in Japan, when its nuclear fuel runs out rather than conducting a refueling overhaul in 2016 to extend its life.

The Navy also had considered whether to extend the construction time for new carriers.

The carrier force is expected to drop to 10 ships starting in 2012 when the Enterprise is decommissioned. Its replacement, the Gerald R. Ford, is under construction in Newport News and is not expected to be completed until 2015.

When asked about how the current plans to cut about $460 billion from the defense budget might affect Hampton Roads, McKeon said, "We don't know what those details are yet."

The Pentagon probably will release the specifics in early 2012, he said.

McKeon said he opposes any further cuts in defense spending, adding that the debate about budget cuts and defense is not a partisan fight.

He said the ranking Democrat on his committee, Washington Rep. Adam Smith, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta both agree with him that "the defense has been cut enough."

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Newport News Daily Press
House Armed Services Chairman Visits Newport News Shipyard

By Peter Frost and Hugh Lessig

NEWPORT NEWS--House Armed Services Chairman Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., on Friday continued his campaign against deep defense cuts and argued that the Navy needs to maintain at least 11 active aircraft carriers.

McKeon, in town to deliver the keynote address at the Saturday commissioning ceremony for the Navy's newest submarine named after his home state, made his first visit to Huntington Ingalls Industries' Newport News shipyard, the nation's largest, alongside Virginia Reps. Scott Rigell, Rob Wittman and Randy Forbes.

Newport News-built aircraft carriers, by far the largest line item in the Navy's shipbuilding budget at about $11 billion per copy, have emerged as likely targets in the Defense Department's quest to cut spending by as much as $465 billion over the next decade.

In internal budget deliberations, the Navy is considering delaying the purchase of the second carrier of the Gerald R. Ford class, the John F. Kennedy, by up to two years. The service also is mulling an option to pull the carrier George Washington out of service before its mid-life nuclear refueling and overhaul, in an effort to save money.

Either option eventually would reduce the Navy's carrier fleet to 10 active flattops, one below the congressional mandate of 11, and cut into the revenues of Newport News-based Huntington, the region's largest private employer with more than 20,000 workers.

"I don't want to see it go below (11) until they can show me the world is safer," McKeon told reporters in front of Huntington's new headquarters in downtown Newport News. "We want to get rid of the waste, but we're past cutting fat. We're getting very close to finishing muscle and are getting into the bone."

Important visit

Speaking against the backdrop of the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, which is undergoing an overhaul, McKeon said it was especially critical to preserve the kinds of skilled workers that Huntington employs.

"We should not back off one bit from the things (American troops) need to carry out these missions, and that starts with the shipyards," he said. "If you stop or slow down, and lose part of the workforce, you don't train these people overnight. These are people who have been doing this for a long time, and they know what they're doing.

"If you lose that ability, it's very hard to replace and it ends up costing more money," he continued. "The smart thing to do is just to take a breath and see, is this the right thing?"

McKeon's comments came after he and the Virginia congressmen stood inside the hanger deck of the under-construction aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford, the Navy's newest flattop that's due to be commissioned in 2015. They also toured the shipyard's submarine construction facilities and spoke with deckplate workers.

Newport News Shipbuilding President Matt Mulherin said the visit allowed McKeon to see the importance of the complex work conducted at the shipyard.

"There's nothing like seeing it, and he's seen it and I think he's a solid supporter of shipbuilding going forward," Mulherin said.

He urged Congress to continue with the Navy's current plan of record, which is to buy a new aircraft carrier every five years, overhaul a carrier every four and continue building two subs per year.

Wittman said it was important for Hampton Roads to give McKeon some face time with shipyard officials and allow him to see firsthand the work that goes into the construction and maintenance of carriers and submarines.

"The only way you can understand that is to come here," Wittman said. "I think he got a very good perspective of that today, talking to employees, talking to our sailors and talking to leadership here."

More cuts 'devastating'

McKeon also addressed the larger debate over defense spending, which could prove pivotal to the Hampton Roads economy beyond just the shipyard.

McKeon, Wittman and other defenders of the military insist that any cuts in defense spending take place with an eye toward the nation's strategic interests, not a single, across-the-board swipe.

"We're looking for any way we can cut," McKeon said."To assume that you can't find some kind of savings in a budget the size of our defense budget, I think, is ludicrous. The taxpayer dollar is sacrosanct, and we should watch how every dollar is spent."

A 12-member congressional committee is charged with coming up with at least $1.2 trillion in overall spending cuts over 10 years. If it fails to reach a deal by Nov. 23 — or if the full Congress rejects the deal — automatic, across-the-board cuts of $1.2 trillion kick in, and half will come from defense. McKeon and other supporters of defense spending warn of catastrophic consequences if the automatic cuts go into effect.

"Hopefully, the super committee will do their job," he said, but if not, "it will be devastating. We will not be able to maintain the same amount of strength that we now have."

McKeon's comments kept up the drumbeat of ominous talk from defense hawks and military leaders about the consequences of deep defense cuts. On Thursday, an Armed Services subcommittee chaired by Forbes elicited more doomsday-like testimony from military vice chiefs, including Army Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli.

He warned congressional leaders not to overlook past instances where ground troops tried to tackle missions for which they were poorly trained or equipped.

"It cost us lives at Kasserine Pass. It cost us lives at Task Force Smith in Korea. It cost us lives every single time," Chiarelli said. "We will end up with a force that is not modernized."

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From mid-November

Navy To Reassess Plans To Move Norfolk-Based Carrier

(NORFOLK VIRGINIAN-PILOT) ... Bill Bartel

As part of a larger review of defense spending, the Navy is taking another look at its plans to move a Norfolk-based aircraft carrier to Mayport, Fla.

In a letter to the Hampton Roads congressional delegation, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert said the carrier relocation, which the Navy has planned for 2019, will be re-examined.

"Within the context of the ongoing Department of Defense strategic and budget reviews," the Navy's top officer wrote Oct. 21, "the size of the fiscal adjustments compels us to take a comprehensive strategic review examining every program element, including the funding required to homeport a CVN in Mayport."

It's the first time since Virginia legislators began raising questions about the relocation that a Navy leader has said the cost issues would be reassessed.

However, Greenert, who took over as chief of naval operations last month, also indicated the Navy still sees a strong strategic argument for moving the carrier.

"From a strategic standpoint, the rationale... to disperse our East Coast carrier fleet remains sound," he wrote.

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, a Democrat, said the admiral's comments are encouraging but acknowledged that "the battle is not over."

The Navy has said that dispersing the carrier fleet would protect it from natural disasters and terrorist attacks and give the service one more East Coast homeport in case of emergencies.

Virginia's federal legislators have been trying to block the move, noting that the Navy has not provided specific analysis to back up its security concerns.

The legislators have questioned the need to spend $600 million or more on the move during tight budget times when the Navy is seeking to expand its fleet.

The decision looms large in the region's economy. Losing a carrier would cost Hampton Roads 6,000 jobs and $425 million in annual revenue, according to estimates by economists.

Greenert's correspondence was a reply to a letter about Mayport sent to him in September by the region's four congressmen and two senators shortly after he became chief of naval operations.

U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Chesapeake, who drafted the delegation's letter, said in a statement Tuesday that he's pleased with the admiral's willingness to re-examine the carrier move, given that the Navy has more pressing needs.

"The United States Navy is facing drastic shortfalls in ship maintenance, inspection failures for Navy ships have nearly tripled in the past four years, and currently, one of five ships inspected is either unfit for combat or severely degraded," Forbes said.

However, a Florida congressman who has been in a political struggle with Virginia legislators over the relocation pointed out in a statement that the Navy still wants a second East Coast carrier homeport.

"Our national security warrants two nuclear-capable homeports on the East Coast - one in Norfolk, one in Mayport," said U.S. Rep. Ander Crenshaw, a Republican whose district includes the Florida naval port.

"I plan to be on hand the day that a nuclear aircraft carrier sails in to homeport at Mayport.

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Boeing Offers New Capabilities For F/A-18s

Nov 23, 2011 By David A. Fulghum

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Boeing is offering a line of upgrades for international variants of its F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and F-15C/Es that the U.S. military is likely to envy and may well adopt as defense budgets shrink.

Even without budget cuts, the U.S. is facing a strike fighter shortage. But if deficit cutting takes a 25% slice out of defense spending, the Pentagon could lose its ability to transfer aircraft to some faraway battlefield in time to deter military adventurism in Asia, Africa or the Middle East. That lack of nearby assets already kept U.S. F-22 units on the East Coast from participating in the Libyan campaign.

But stopgap measures could enable less stealthy, conventional aircraft such as the F-15, B-1, F/A-18E/F, F-16 and EA-18G to penetrate farther into a foe’s most lethal threat rings. To avoid making such a foray a suicide mission, those aircraft can combine reduced signatures, electronic attack, directed-energy weapons, cyberoperations and standoff missiles to increase their striking range and penetration capabilities without driving up risk.

Among Boeing’s upgrade options for the Super Hornet is a stealthy weapons bay that can be attached to the aircraft’s exterior, says Mike Gibbons, Boeing’s F/A-18 and EA-18 programs vice president. Historically, any exterior payload — fuel tanks, weapons or sensors — damaged the stealth signature of an aircraft. This stealthy, 17.5-ft.-long weapons pod does not, he says.

In fact, the uniquely shaped bay, hung under the aircraft between the engines, creates a trap that either deflects radar signals away from the enemy sensor or sends them bouncing around a series of treated surfaces on the nose, engine nacelles, belly and bay itself, according to stealth specialists. After as few as two bounces, the radar signals are rendered too weak to be useful.

The weapon bay doors can open at speeds up to Mach 1.6, which, combined with high altitude, provides an increase in standoff range of 70-80% for some weapons. The low-drag, low-radar-cross-section weapons pod can carry four Amraam air-to-air missiles; six Small Diameter Bombs and two Amraams; or two 500-lb. bombs and two Amraams. Future options include a 2,000-lb. Blu-109 hard-target penetrator fitted with an extended-range wing kit as well as other weapons. Some of the weapons are attached to the weapon pod’s doors, but the layout ensures that no weapon is blocked by any other.

The manually scanned radar dish on the initial Super Hornets created radar glints from the flat emitter face and movements of the radar. An active, electronically scanned array (AESA), long-range radar in the Block 2 Super Hornets eliminates both of those problems with an upward-slanting radar face and no moving parts, stealth specialists say.

Conformal fuel tanks attached over the wing roots add 110 nm of combat radius, says Mark Gammon, program manager for the Super Hornet International Roadmap. Wind tunnel testing shows that at cruise and loiter speeds there is no performance penalty for the conformal tanks, and at Mach 0.6-0.75 there is actually improvement over baseline performance, he says.

Yet another international option is General Electric’s enhanced-performance F414. A new compressor fan and core gives it 20% more thrust than the standard F404.

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MORE P8 POSEIDONS

Navy orders seven P-8A Poseidon advanced maritime patrol jets from Boeing in $1.4 billion contract

PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md. 6 Nov. 2011. Posted by John Keller

The U.S. Navy ordered seven P-8A Poseidon anti-submarine warfare (ASW) maritime patrol jets from the Boeing Co. in Seattle Thursday as Navy leaders continue their efforts to upgrade the service's long-rang ASW and maritime patrol capability by replacing the venerable P-3 Orion turboprop with P-8A -- a Navy version of the Boeing 737 passenger jetliner.

Officials of the Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., awarded a $1.38 billion contract to Boeing to procure seven P-8A multi-mission maritime aircraft (MMA) under terms of an advanced acquisition low-rate initial production II contract. Boeing should complete work by January 2013. The Navy ordered six P-8As from Boeing last January in a $1.53 billion contract.

Ultimately, the Navy plans to buy 108 P-8A aircraft from Boeing to replace the service's fleet of 196 P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft which are approaching the end of operational life. The P-3 is a version of the Lockheed Martin Electra four-engine turboprop aircraft.

The P-8A is a specially hardened and reinforced version of the Boeing 737 passenger jet, and is designed to operate at extremely low altitudes over the ocean during close-in searches for potentially hostile submarines. The P-8A is designed to withstand the rigors of low-altitude turbulence and exposure to salt spray.

Navy officials plan to use the P-8A in tandem with the Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman RQ-4N Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) -- a maritime-patrol version of the Global Hawk long-range surveillance UAV. Plans call for using BAMS to detect potentially hostile submarines and surface ships, and upon detection, to call in the P-8A to take a closer look, or to attack the hostile vessels with torpedoes and missiles.

Boeing will build the Poseidon aircraft at its factory in Renton, Wash. The 737 fuselage and tail sections will be built by Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita, Kan., then transferred to Renton where all structural features will be incorporated in sequence during fabrication and assembly.

The P-8A's flight management system and the stores management system has been developed by GE Aviation Systems in Grand Rapids, Mich. (formerly Smiths Aerospace). The cabin has as many as seven operator consoles.

The Poseidon's MX-20HD digital electro-optical and infrared (EO/IR) multi-spectral sensor turrets come from L-3 Communications Wescam in Burlington, Ontario. The MX-20HD is gyro-stabilized and can have as many as seven sensors including infrared, CCDTV, image intensifier, laser rangefinder and laser illuminator.

 The aircraft has the upgraded APS-137D(V)5 maritime surveillance radar and signals intelligence (SIGINT) system from the Raytheon Co. Space and Airborne Systems (SAS) segment in McKinney, Texas. The APS-137D(V)5 radar, which is installed on the P-8's enlarged nose fairing, provides synthetic aperture radar (SAR) for imaging stationary ships and small vessels and for coastal and overland surveillance, and high resolution imaging synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) for imaging surfaced submarines and fast surface vessels operating in coastal waters.

The P-8A will have the CAE Inc. advanced integrated magnetic anomaly detection (MAD) System. The Navy plans to arm the P-8A with the MK 54 torpedo. The Northrop Grumman Corp. Electronic Systems segment in Baltimore is supplying the electronic warfare self-protection (EWSP) suite which includes Terma AN/ALQ-213(V) electronic warfare management system (EWMS), directional infrared countermeasures (DIRCM) set, radar warning system, BAE Systems countermeasures dispenser.

Boeing will do the work for this contract in Chicago; Greenlawn, N.Y.; Puget Sound, Wash.; Dallas; North Amityville, N.Y.; Cambridge, England; and various locations in and outside the continental U.S.

For more information contact Boeing online at www.boeing.com.

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Harrier Jump Jets Culled In Britain Find Sanctuary In U.S.

U.S. military buys entire fleet of vertical-takeoff-and-landing warplanes scrapped in UK strategic defence review

(THE GUARDIAN (UK) 15 NOV 11) ... Nick Hopkins

The Royal Navy's entire fleet of Harrier jump jets, the British plane controversially scrapped in last year's defence review, has been saved – by the U.S. military.

All 74 of the planes, which were permanently grounded by the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), are to fly again for the U.S. marines, in a deal that is expected to be closed within a week.

The Ministry of Defence said negotiations were continuing but were in their final stages. And reports in the U.S. suggested the marines were already confidently preparing for the Harriers' arrival.

The sale of the Harriers is bound to raise fresh questions about the wisdom of retiring the much-admired aircraft, which the Americans intend to use until 2025.

Speaking to the NavyTimes, Rear Admiral Mark Heinrich, chief of the U.S. navy's supply corps, said buying the Harriers made sense because many of the jets had been recently upgraded, and the U.S. already had pilots who could fly them.

"We're taking advantage of all the money the Brits have spent on them," he said. "It's like we're buying a car with maybe 15,000 miles on it. These are very good platforms. And we've already got trained pilots."

The U.S. military already has its own fleet of Harriers, and converting the British planes to fire American missiles can be done relatively easily.

The price of the deal has not been disclosed, but Heinrich said the U.S. was paying $50m (£32m) for spare parts alone.

The British Harriers have been kept in storage at RAF Cottesmore, in Rutland, where they have been maintained prior to sale.

Their retirement was criticised when the SDSR was published, last year, and again when British forces became involved in operations to defend Libyan civilians during the country's revolution.

The MoD has maintained, however, that it had no choice, because of cost-cutting forced upon a department where budgets were out of control.

Rear Admiral Chris Parry, a critic of SDSR, said: "The issue is not that the U.S. marines are buying the Harriers: it's that the U.S. still thinks that the Harriers are viable aircraft. They still think there is a need for them."

The MoD said it was negotiating the best deal it could, and that scrapping the Harrier would save hundreds of millions of pounds over the next decade.

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F35 NEWS

F35 Launch with EMALS

Go to the link for more on the F-35 launching on EMALS       http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-57332145-52/whoosh-u.s-navy-f-35c-gets-electromagnetic-launch/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Marines Will Fight For F-35B To The Bitter End

(NATIONAL DEFENSE 15 NOV 11) ... Sandra Erwin

Recent reports about the Marine Corps buying the U.K. Royal Navy's castoff Harrier jump jets are viewed as a sign that Marines are seeing the writing on the wall and hedging against the possible delay or even termination of the Harrier replacement, the F-35B.

The Corps, according to the Navy Times, is buying 74 AV-8 Harriers from the United Kingdom, which is retiring its entire fleet.

Whether this decision implies that Marines are preparing for the worst — the termination of F-35B — is the subject of speculation. The fate of F-35B, to be sure, is far from certain. But what cannot be put in doubt is the Marine Corps’ determination to save the vertical takeoff and landing variant of the Joint Strike Fighter from the budget ax.

The Corps’ dogged insistence that F-35B is essential to its future as an expeditionary force that can deploy large ground forces from ships has drawn some criticism. Some analysts have questioned why the identity of a service should be tied to particular programs. Marines had made a similar argument over the amphibious Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, which was terminated last year.

Retired Marine lieutenant colonel and former military analyst Dakota Wood has said weapons advocacy has gone too far. “Our weapons system is the Marine,” Wood told Peter W. Singer, director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative and a senior fellow at Brookings.

Singer also has called out the Marine Corps for not being open to alternatives. In an interview, Singer said that the rising costs of F-35B are a huge problem for the Marine Corps with budget cuts on the horizon. “We have to start thinking about defense cuts beyond aye-or-nay on individual weapon systems,” he said. “Instead of framing every question about which program to eliminate or not we should do 'budget war gaming' - ask what alternative force mixes might give commanders more effective tools for a wider set of contingencies.”

On the F-35B, specifically, “Why aren't we looking at more flexible options?” he asked. Singer estimated that for the same price of 13 F-35s, the Corps could buy a mix of eight F-35s, two F/A-18 Growlers, four Reaper and one Global Hawk drones, and still have an extra $180 million. “Theater commanders might prefer a more flexible mix,” said Singer.

He cannot predict what will happen with the Joint Strike Fighter, but he said Marines would be wise to have alternatives. “The political environment and the problems that the system has had means there is a strong likelihood that that choice [termination] may happen,” he said. “I wish the system was cheaper” because it could be argued that it brings more value than the conventional version of the JSF, which requires long runways and bases, and cannot take off from ships. “But we don’t make decisions that way,” said Singer.

One of the Marine Corps’ staunchest supporters of the F-35B, Maj. Gen. Melvin G. Spiese, takes exception to the idea that the Corps weds its identity to specific programs. But he acknowledged that, ultimately, the ability of the Marine Corps to do its job “gets down to programs, as our capabilities become manifested in the tools we choose to employ them,” Spiese said in an email to National Defense.

Spiese, who is deputy commanding general of I Marine Expeditionary Force, at Camp Pendleton, Calif., agreed that the Marine Corps' strength is not about "a program” but a “package of capabilities.”

At some point, he said, the Marine Corps' amphibious capabilities in World War II came down to programs.

“Although the F-35B is not the be all and end all for the Marine Corps, it is the only viable option for short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) strike aircraft replacement available,” said Spiese. “In the end, it may not specifically be F-35B that is essential to the Marine Air Ground Task Force, but I believe STOVL strike aviation writ large is a critical element.”

The commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. James Amos often points out that F-35B doubles the number of "large deck aircraft carriers" available to the Defense Department and opens available airfields around the world by an order of magnitude, said Spiese. “The operational implications are almost limitless.”

One of the Corps’ biggest fears is that losing the F-35B will be the beginning of the end of Marine aviation as separate and unique from the other services.

Spiese said the “joint solution” to strike aviation works in periods of unmatched U.S. airpower and unlimited aircraft availability. “When conditions and circumstances are not that way, as is often the case in time sensitive crisis response, theaters that have not had years of development or maturation, situations where countries will not allow bases located within them to be used or permit overflight, then things change.”

Without some critical programs, said Spiese, “particularly those unique to the Marine Corps and its way of war, then we can argue to what degree we are the Marine Corps, as opposed to a slight variation of someone else.”

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F35B SHIP TESTS

The F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing variant completed ship suitability testing aboard the USS WASP (LHD-1) off the coast of Virginia in October 2011. Combined, F-35B test aircraft BF-2 and BF-4 accomplished 72 short takeoffs and 72 vertical landings during the three-week testing period.  The following link is to a 3+ minute video of the shipboard tests:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki86x1WKPmE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Start Date for F-35 Training at Eglin Under Review: A senior Pentagon official has expressed "serious concerns" about starting F-35 training on the Air Force's conventional take-off and landing variant at Eglin AFB, Fla., this fall, saying the Joint Strike Fighter program has yet to address some safety-related issues. It could take at least 10 months to meet those requirements, wrote Michael Gilmore, director of Operational Test and Evaluation, in a memo dated Oct. 21 to the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics. The Project on Government Reform posted the memo on its blog Monday. "Initiation of training in an immature aircraft risks the occurrence of a serious mishap. The consequences of a mishap at Eglin would overwhelm the very modest benefits of beginning flight training this fall," wrote Gilmore. Vice Adm. David Venlet, JSF program executive officer, and Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas Owen, commander of the Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, disagreed with Gilmore's assessment in a response memo, also posted on the POGO site. They said the risks asserted in the memo "were covered at length during the three-star risk assessment board as part of the airworthiness process." A third memo, by acting USD(ATL) Frank Kendall, asks the Air Force to resolve the issue.

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Lockheed Hits 2011 F-35 Test Targets Early

By Graham Warwick

Lockheed Martin has passed its 2011 flight-test targets for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, with aircraft now flying at a pace that, if maintained, will allow the company to exceed its target for a significantly higher number of flights in 2012.

The test program completed its 875th flight for the year on Nov. 17, passing the full-year target of 872. A total of 6,809 test points were accumulated on those flights, exceeding the year-end target of 6,622, says J.D. McFarlan, Lockheed vice president for F-35 test and verification.

The 2011 target was passed early despite testing being halted twice: once briefly in March after an inflight dual generator failure, and for two weeks in August after a failure of the aircraft’s integrated power package during ground runs.

Flying of some F-35B short-takeoff-and-landing test aircraft has again been halted, this time to replace structural beams in the lift-fan bay that have developed small cracks. The beams support actuators for the upper and lower lift-fan doors.

McFarlan says the actuator supports were identified as “hot spots” during structural testing, and Stovl (short takeofff and vertical landing) aircraft from test jet BF-5 onward have redesigned beams and are not affected.

Aircraft BF-1 has been fitted with the redesigned support beams and is planned to return to flight at NAS Patuxent River, Md., in December. BF-2 will be modified during scheduled down time, he says.

BF-3 has done less Stovl testing and has not yet developed cracks. It will be modified, as will BF-4, which for now is being used for up-and-away flight testing. “BF-3 and -5 are available to do Stovl work, so this is not holding us up,” McFarlan says.

In January, the F-35 test program was replanned and extended by two years to provide additional margin for discoveries and to refly test points. “Flying rates in the new plan were supposed to accommodate such findings, and we are happy with its ability to do so,” he says.

Since flying resumed in mid-August, the F-35 test fleet has been averaging 100 flights a month. “That is slightly higher than the pace we need in 2012,” McFarlan says. Around 1,100 test flights are planned for next year.

Although Lockheed has exceeded its full-year target for test points, they are not quite in the order planned. “We have about 500 more in the CV [F-35C carrier variant] bucket than the plan and about 100 more of CTOL [conventional-takeoff-and-landing F-35A] and Stovl to accomplish.”

A major objective of flight testing in 2011 was to deliver data to clear the initial envelope for flight training. “We have done that, and delivered several updates to that envelope,” McFarlan says. Training on the F-35A at Eglin AFB, Fla., has yet to begin.

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Throwing in the Towel: The long battle between the Pentagon and Congress over development of a second engine type for the F-35 strike fighter appears to be over, once and for all. General Electric and Rolls Royce, partners in the Fighter Engine Team, announced that they will cease self-funding the maturation of their F136 engine at year's end due to "continued uncertainty in the development and production schedules" for the F-35. "GE and Rolls-Royce are proud of our technology advancements and accomplishments on the F136," said Dan McCormick, FET president, in the Dec. 2 release. "However," he added, "difficult circumstances are converging that impact the potential benefit of a self-funded development effort." After DOD terminated the F136 contract in April—in favor of proceeding solely with Pratt & Whitney's F135 that is powering F-35s flying today—GE and Rolls Royce said they'd continue funding the F136's development on their own dime through the end of Fiscal 2012. The companies anticipated that with continued political support on Capital Hill for F-35 engine competition, they'd be able to offer the F136 for future F-35 production lots. But it appears the F136's death knell has now sounded.

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Future F-35 Cost Growth Will Be Offset With Aircraft Delays

(BLOOMBERG NEWS) ... Tony Capaccio

The U.S. Defense Department will continue to pay for cost growth within the Lockheed Martin Corp. F-35 fighter jet project, the Pentagon’s most expensive program, by delaying aircraft purchases, two Air Force officials said today.

The Defense Department “plans for the Joint Strike Fighter program to pay any cost increases with funding internal to the program; i.e. aircraft procurement funding,” the officials told a House Armed Services Committee aircraft panel in discussing the $382 billion program for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.

The deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and requirements, Lieutenant General Herbert Carlisle, and Global Power Programs Director Major General Jay Lindell included the F-35 statement in testimony about the state of Air Force aircraft programs.

The Pentagon on two occasions since February 2010 has delayed purchase of 246 aircraft to pay for extended development, to transfer funds to other programs or to help cover $78 billion in deficit reductions the White House directed last year.

The Pentagon also announced last week it cut four F-35 jet fighters from its next contract with Lockheed Martin in part to pay for cost overruns on the first three orders.

The U.S. Air Force and Navy had planned to buy a total of 34 jets in the fifth order, for which negotiations are still under way. The order is now for 30 aircraft.

Vice Admiral Mark Skinner, the principle military deputy for research to the assistant secretary of the Navy, told the panel “affordability remains a concern.”

Still, the F-35s “return on investment” of the F-35 outweighs the operations and support costs the Navy will incur if the current fleet of F-18s and other fighters continue to be extended beyond their designed service flight lives.

“It is important to stress, no major or insurmountable technical problems have been discovered,” Skinner said.

Pentagon Holds F-35 'Should-Cost' Talks With Lockheed Martin

(DEFENSE DAILY ) ... Mike McCarthy

The Pentagon held two days of talks with Lockheed Martin [LMT] this week to present its "should-cost" estimate for the fifth low-rate initial production (LRIP) phase for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the program office said yesterday.

The should-cost estimate serves as the basis for government negotiations with Lockheed Martin about the cost of the LRIP 5 production, said Joe DellaVedova, the spokesman for the F-35 Joint Program Office. It was arrived at through a Defense Department and JPO study that looked at affordability, factory flow, sustained engineering, and subcontracting "to inform the negotiations for the LRIP 5 contract," he said.

The Air Force and Navy are expected to lower the quantity of F-35s procured under LRIP 5 to 30 to pay for past overrruns, DellaVedova said.

The JPO said last week that it remained committed to having Lockheed Martin share in "concurrency" costs associated with redesign and modifications in LRIP 5, in addition to provisions under previous LRIPs that required the firm also help pay for cost overruns ( Defense Daily , Oct 27). The move was an attempt by the Pentagon to rein in costs for the $382 billion program, which has faced heavy scrutiny on Capitol Hill and some calls for cancellation.

The concurrency clause appeared to open a rift between Lockheed Martin and the JPO. Bob Stevens, company chairman and CEO, called the move "new and unprecedented." While Lockheed Martin was open to sharing concurrency costs, it needed to be fair and equitable, he said.

"This kind of concept breaks down, however, when extended to cover the unknown, that is discoveries that might occur in the future but are not known and cannot be predicted today," he said.

JPO said it would work in "good faith" to reach a contract agreement for LRIP 5. The Pentagon has stood by plans to have Lockheed Martin pay for some of the concurrency costs as outlined in an August memorandum calling on the production contract to reflect "reasonable allocation" for the firm to share the risk to meet F-35 requirements.

"Early production aircraft always have higher costs that come down a learning curve," DellaVedova said. "F-35 concurrency is generating significant change that both perturbs the learning cost reduction and adds costs for modifying delivered jets."

The first three LRIP production runs for a combined 31 aircraft exceeded cost expectations by 11-15 percent, requiring the government to pay $771 million in overruns, DellaVedova said. The ongoing procurement of 32 aircraft under LRIP 4 has shown improvement in bringing down the overruns, he said.

"Controlling costs is an absolute must," he said.

Lockheed Martin would not comment on the should-cost discussions. The JSF JPO would not provide any figures arrived at under the should-cost estimate.

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Aol Defense   JSF's Build And Test Was 'Miscalculation,' Adm. Venlet Says; Production Must Slow

By Richard Whittle

Published: December 1, 2011

WASHINGTON: Fatigue testing and analysis are turning up so many potential cracks and "hot spots" in the Joint Strike Fighter's airframe that the production rate of the F-35 should be slowed further over the next few years, the program's head declared in an interview.

"The analyzed hot spots that have arisen in the last 12 months or so in the program have surprised us at the amount of change and at the cost," Vice Adm. David Venlet said in an interview at his office near the Pentagon. "Most of them are little ones, but when you bundle them all up and package them and look at where they are in the airplane and how hard they are to get at after you buy the jet, the cost burden of that is what sucks the wind out of your lungs. I believe it's wise to sort of temper production for a while here until we get some of these heavy years of learning under our belt and get that managed right. And then when we've got most of that known and we've got the management of the change activity better in hand, then we will be in a better position to ramp up production."

Venlet also took aim at a fundamental assumption of the JSF business model: concurrency. The JSF program was originally structured with a high rate of concurrency -- building production model aircraft while finishing ground and flight testing -- that assumed less change than is proving necessary.

"Fundamentally, that was a miscalculation," Venlet said. "You'd like to take the keys to your shiny new jet and give it to the fleet with all the capability and all the service life they want. What we're doing is, we're taking the keys to the shiny new jet, giving it to the fleet and saying, 'Give me that jet back in the first year. I've got to go take it up to this depot for a couple of months and tear into it and put in some structural mods, because if I don't, we're not going to be able to fly it more than a couple, three, four, five years.' That's what concurrency is doing to us." But he added: "I have the duty to navigate this program through concurrency. I don't have the luxury to stand on the pulpit and criticize and say how much I dislike it and wish we didn't have it. My duty is to help us navigate through it."

Lockheed Martin, prime contractor on the Pentagon's biggest program, has been pushing hard to increase the production rate, arguing its production line is ready and it has reduced problems on the line to speed things up. Speeding up production, of course, would boost economies of scale and help lower the politically sensitive price per plane.

But slowing production would help reduce the cost of replacing parts in jets that are being built before testing is complete, Venlet said. Although fatigue testing has barely begun -- along with "refined analysis" -- it's already turned up enough parts that need to be redesigned and replaced in jets already built that the changes may add $3 million to $5 million to each plane's cost.

The price of the F-35, being built by Lockheed Martin Corp. in three variants, has averaged roughly $111 million under the most recent Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) Lot 4 contract.

The required changes to the aircraft aren't a matter of safety or of the F-35's ability to perform its missions, Venlet said. They're necessary, though, to make sure the plane's structural parts last the 8,000 hours of service life required. Nor are the weaknesses surprising in the world of fighter jets, he added. The discoveries are "not a quote 'problem with the airplane,'" Venlet said. "It's a fighter made out of metal and composites. You always find some hot spots and cracks and you have to go make fixes. That's normal. This airplane was maybe thought to be a little bit better, wouldn't have so much discovery. Well, no. It's more like standard fighters."

Venlet declined to say how much he thinks production should be slowed. Earlier plans called for the Pentagon to order 42 F-35s in fiscal 2011, but that was cut to 35 and more recently it was dropped to 30. Previous plans, which Venlet's comments and the unprecedented pressure to cut the defense budget make clear will change, had been to ramp up orders to 32 in fiscal 2012, 42 in fiscal 2013, 62 in fiscal 2014, 81 in fiscal 2015 and 108 in fiscal 2016 before jumping to more than 200 a year after fundamental fatigue and flight testing is done.

Officially the "Lightning II," the F-35 is a stealthy attack jet Lockheed is building with major subcontractors Northrop Grumman Corp. and BAE Systems for the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and 11 allied nations. There is a conventional take off and landing (CTOL) version, an aircraft carrier-suitable (CV) model and a short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) jump jet that hovers and lands much like a helicopter. The U.S. services alone are scheduled to buy 2,443 to replace a variety of older fighters, making the $379 billion program the Pentagon's largest.

Venlet's comments address a key issue in negotiations between the government and Lockheed for the next contract, LRIP 5. The government paid for design changes and retrofits through the first four lots, but Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall issued a memo in August requiring Lockheed to bear a "reasonable" share of such costs in LRIP 5. Lockheed complained last month that the government was refusing to reimburse it for parts the company was buying in advance for LRIP 5 aircraft as the price and terms of that next production contract are negotiated.

"We negotiated the LRIP 4 contract with a certain amount of resources considered to pay for concurrent changes," Venlet said. "We were probably off on the low side by a factor of four. Maybe five. And we've discovered that in this calendar year, '11, and it's basically sucked the wind out of our lungs with the burden, the financial burden." On top of that, he added, the cost of concurrency changes figures to grow as more testing is done -- one reason it's important to slow production rather than testing.

"Slowing down the test program would be probably the most damaging thing anybody could do to the program," Venlet said. "The test program must proceed as fast as possible."

Flight testing of the F-35, though going extremely well lately, is only 18 percent complete, Venlet said. As of Nov. 29, 1,364 test flights had been flown -- 896 of them in the past 10 months, despite two stoppages of a couple of weeks each to fix problems found by flying. Under a new program baseline created after the JSF project breached cost limits under the Nunn-McCurdy law, about 7,700 hours of flight tests are planned. "That's a lot," Venlet said, adding that number will grow if more problems are found.

Fatigue testing has barely begun, Venlet said. The CTOL variant's fatigue testing is about 20 percent complete; the CV variant has not started yet. For the STOVL variant, fatigue testing was halted at 6 percent last year and has not resumed after a crack in a large bulkhead in the wing was found, requiring a major redesign of that part.

That bulkhead crack was one of five discoveries in the F-35B that required engineering changes, one reason former Defense Secretary Robert Gates placed it on "probation" last January and said the Marine's plane should be canceled if the problems weren't solved within two years. Venlet repeated earlier statements that he was sure the changes needed to take care of the problems are now in place, though he wants to await final testing of them this winter before saying it's time for the jump jet to come off of probation.

After discovering the bulkhead crack in the B variant last year, Venlet explained, "We said, 'Well, where else do we need to look?' The fallout of that additional analysis has revealed additional spots that (may fail in) less than 8,000 hours of service life. We call them 'analyzed low-life hot spots.'" In other words, he said, engineering analysis indicates those spots "are going to crack" well before the parts in question have flown 8,000 hours.

"The question for me is not: 'F-35 or not?'" Venlet said. "The question is, how many and how fast? I'm not questioning the ultimate inventory numbers, I'm questioning the pace that we ramp up production for us and the partners, and can we afford it?"

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BOEING UNMANNED CARGO HELICOPTER

Boeing's Unmanned A-160T Cargo Helicopter Set For Evaluation

(DEFENSE DAILY 03 NOV 11) ... Mike McCarthy

The Navy is scheduled to perform a technical evaluation next year of Boeing 's A160T Hummingbird, an unmanned cargo helicopter designed to ferry supplies to troops, and will decide whether to deploy the system to theater after the testing, Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) said yesterday.

"The Department of Navy is planning to do a technical evaluation of Boeing's A-160 in spring 2012 in Yuma, Ariz.," spokeswoman Jamie Cosgrove said. "NAVAIR's test and evaluation teams will assess technical and operational characteristics of the system."

The Hummingbird is competing with Lockheed Martin's K-MAX unmanned helicopter, which completed five days of a Quick Reaction Assessment (QRA) in August, setting it up for deployment to Afghanistan in November. Cosgrove said the Navy will determine the "best use" of the Hummingbird once next year's evaluation is complete.

The Navy awarded dueling development contracts to Lockheed Martin and Boeing in December to create an unmanned airlift capability in response to an urgent requirements request by Marines in Afghanistan. The unmanned, autonomous flying helicopters are intended to reduce risks, such as ambushes or improvised explosive devices (IEDs), associated with moving supplies in ground convoys.

The president of Boeing Military Aircraft, Chris Chadwick, said in an interview this week that the Hummingbird is "fairly close" to being ready for deployment.

"We'll have to see how it plays out," he said. "I think it would be ready to deploy should the customer want to do that."

Chadwick said he would like to see the Hummingbird move along faster, but was confident the system has greater capability than its competitor, noting it has set a record for endurance.

"Are we behind? I would always like to go faster," he said, adding that moving from prototype to production is always a challenge.

"I wouldn't say there's any one technology area that is causing us issues," he said. "It's just moving from prototype to the development to the production phase and that's where we're at right now."

Boeing inherited Hummngbird when it acquired Frontier Systems in 2004.

Lockheed Martin is the lead contractor for K-MAX in a partnership with Kaman Aerospace.

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