F-35 struggles through test phase

LA Times:

Far beyond the electronic security gates and razor-wire topped fences, Col. Rod Cregier surveys a team of technicians busily readying a lithe F-35 fighter jet for its next test flight.

As the F-35 program director at the base, Cregier and his team play a crucial role in a nationwide military effort to get the high-tech jet ready for battle.

After a decade of administrative problems, cost overruns and technical glitches, the F-35 is still not ready for action. The program has consistently come under political attack even though the military considers it crucial to the nation's defense needs.

Cregier believes the program is finally on course and said he is convinced that the jet can successfully replace the military's aging fighter fleets — some 34 years old — though he does not downplay the significant challenges his team faces.

"This is an incredibly complex aircraft, the most complex aircraft ever built," Cregier said. "Getting it right isn't easy."

In the skies above the Mojave Desert, test pilots today are pushing the radar-evading F-35 to new heights and flying to ever-increasing speeds to uncover design flaws. Just last week, an F-35 launched a missile in mid-flight from its internal weapons bay for the first time in a test flight for the Air Force.

But problems constantly crop up. Twice this year alone, F-35s have been grounded after different parts failed.

Testing the F-35 is key to the Pentagon's ultimate plan to build 2,457 of the planes. Known as the Joint Strike Fighter, the program centered around a plan to develop one basic fighter plane that could — with a few tweaks — be used by the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.

The idea is that it can take off and land on runways and aircraft carriers, as well as hover like a helicopter. No one fighter aircraft has had all these capabilities.

From an engineering standpoint, it's a challenging task for plane maker Lockheed Martin Corp.because the requirements of the different services vary so much.

Each day, test pilots are expanding the edges of the F-35's flight envelope of all three variants at Edwards Air Force Base and Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland.

Pressure intensified on the test teams last week when the Marines Corps said it wanted its F-35s to be ready for combat by the end of 2015 — one year earlier than planned. The Air Force also moved up its date, to 2016. The Navy plans to see its F-35s aboard U.S. aircraft carriers by early-2019.

This is an ambitious plan, considering the Government Accountability Office estimated that F-35 flight testing, which has repeatedly fallen behind schedule, is only about one-third complete.
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There is much more.

The tough part of the test are still to come.  That is not encouraging considering how difficult the birthing process has been.  I have found that machines that are asked to do too many things don't do any of the things at top performance.  For example you can build a sailboat that is a racer/cruiser, but it will not be as competitive as a lightweight race and it will not be as comfortable as true cruiser.

The timeline for the Navy may find the X-47B in the fleet before hand and it will largely replace the bomber role for the Navy.