The development of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II ran from 1995 with the origins of the Joint Strike Fighter program to the completion of operational testing and start of full-rate production in 2021.F-35 Program Information – Non Export Controlled Information Keith P. Knotts, 9 July 2013 The X-35 first flew on 24 October 2000 and the F-35A on 15 December 2006.
Intended to replace most US fighter jets, the F-35 was designed with three variants: F-35A (conventional take off and landing, CTOL), F-35B (short-take off and vertical-landing, STOVL), and F-35C (carrier-based catapult assisted take-off (CATOBAR), CV). The variants were intended to share most of their parts and thereby reduce costs and improve maintenance logistics, but by 2017 shared just 20% of their parts..
It was developed with and for foreign partners, unlike the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor.
The program received considerable criticism for cost overruns during development and for the total projected cost of the program over the lifetime of the jets. By 2017, the program was expected over its lifetime (until 2070) to cost $406.5 billion for acquisition of the jets and $1.1 trillion for operations and maintenance. A number of design deficiencies were alleged, such as carrying a small internal payload; inferior performance to the aircraft being replaced, particularly the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon; and the lack of safety in relying on a single engine. Laws included vulnerability of the fuel tank to fire and the propensity for transonic roll-off (TRO or "wing drop"). The possible obsolescence of stealth technology was also criticized.
JSF program requirements and selection
The Joint Strike Fighter program was intended to replace the United States military General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet (excluding newer E/F "Super Hornet" variants) and McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II tactical fighter and attack aircraft. It was also intended to meet requirements through 2035. To do this, Pentagon leaders decided to build a single jet in three variants: F-35A, conventional take off and landing (CTOL); F-35B, short-take off and vertical-landing (STOVL); and F-35C, carrier-based CATOBAR (CV) variant. The approach was meant to reduce development, production, and operating costs. But by April 2017, the variants were sharing just 20% of their parts. The design goals call for the F-35 to be the premier strike aircraft through 2040 and to be second only to the F-22 Raptor in air supremacy."F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Lightning II" . Global Security. Retrieved: 7 April 2010. George Standridge, Vice President of Strategy and Business Development for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, predicted in 2006 that the F-35 would be four times more effective than existing fighters in air-to-air combat, eight times more effective in air-to-ground combat, and three times more effective in reconnaissance and Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses – while having better range and requiring less logistics support and having around the same procurement costs (if development costs are ignored) as legacy fighters."Lockheed Martin F22 and F35 5th Gen Revolution In Military Aviation" . Space Daily, 22 February 2006.
The JSF development contract was signed on 16 November 1996, and the contract for System Development and Demonstration (SDD) was awarded by the Department of Defense (DoD) on 26 October 2001 to Lockheed Martin, whose X-35 beat the Boeing X-32. Although both aircraft met or exceeded requirements, the X-35 design was considered to have less risk and more growth potential.Keijsper 2007, p. 119. The designation of the new fighter as "F-35" is out-of-sequence with standard DoD aircraft numbering,Polmar 2005, p. 398. by which it should have been "F-24". It came as a surprise even to the company, which had been referring to the aircraft in-house by this expected designation.Parsch, Andreas. "Designation Systems" . Designation Systems, 27 April 2006. Retrieved 23 November 2009.
The development of the F-35 is unusual for a fighter aircraft in that no two-seat trainer versions have been built for any of the variants; advanced flight simulators mean that no trainer versions were deemed necessary.Thompson, Mark. "The Most Expensive Weapon Ever Built". Time magazine, 25 February 2013, pp. 26–30 (lack of 2-seat trainer variants cited on p. 27). Instead F-16s have been used as bridge trainers between the T-38 and the F-35. The T-X was intended to be used to train future F-35 pilots, but this might succumb to budget pressures in the USAF.
Design phase Based on wind tunnel testing, Lockheed Martin slightly enlarged its X-35 design into the F-35. The forward fuselage is longer to make room for avionics. Correspondingly, the horizontal stabilators were moved rearward to retain balance and control. The top surface of the fuselage was raised by along the center line. Also, it was decided to increase the size of the F-35B STOVL variant's weapons bay to be common with the other two variants. Manufacturing of parts for the first F-35 prototype airframe began in November 2003.Keijsper 2007, pp. 122, 124. Because the X-35 did not have weapons bays, their addition in the F-35 would cause design changes which would lead to later weight problems.
The F-35B STOVL variant was in danger of missing performance requirements in 2004 because it weighed too much; reportedly, by or 8%. In response, Lockheed Martin added engine thrust and thinned airframe members, reduced the size of the common weapons bay and vertical stabilizers, rerouted some thrust from the roll-post outlets to the main nozzle, and redesigned the wing-mate joint, portions of the electrical system, and the portion of the aircraft immediately behind the cockpit.Fulghum, David A. and Robert Wall. "USAF Plans for Fighters Change". Aviation Week and Space Technology, 19 September 2004. Many of the changes were applied to all three variants to maintain high levels of commonality. By September 2004, the weight reduction effort had reduced the aircraft's design weight by ,Keijsper 2007, p. 124, but the redesign cost $6.2 billion and delayed the project by 18 months.
On 7 July 2006, the U.S. Air Force, the lead service for the aircraft, officially announced the name of the F-35: Lightning II, in honor of Lockheed's World War II-era twin-propeller Lockheed P-38 Lightning for the United States Army Air Forces and the Cold War-era jet, the English Electric Lightning for the Royal Air Force."'Lightning II' moniker given to Joint Strike Fighter" . Air Force Link, United States Air Force, 7 June 2006. Retrieved 1 December 2008.
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics is the prime contractor and performs aircraft final assembly, overall system integration, mission system, and provides forward fuselage, wings and aircraft flight control system. Northrop Grumman provides active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, electro-optical AN/AAQ-37 Distributed Aperture System (DAS), Communications, Navigation, Identification (CNI), center fuselage, weapons bay, and arrestor gear. BAE Systems provides the Flight Control Software (FCS1), the electronic warfare systems, crew life support and escape systems, aft fuselage, empennages as well as the horizontal and vertical tails. Alenia will perform final assembly for Italy and, according to an Alenia executive, assembly of all European aircraft with the exception of Turkey and the United Kingdom."F-35 Distributed Aperture System (EO DAS)" . Northrop Grumman. Retrieved 6 April 2010."Italy Wins JSF Final Assembly: U.K. Presses Maintenance, Support". Aviation Week, February 2013. The F-35 program has seen a great deal of investment in automated production facilities. For example, Handling Specialty produced the wing assembly platforms for Lockheed Martin."Handling Specialty Turn Key Capabilities". handling.com. Retrieved: 16 November 2010.
On 19 December 2008, Lockheed Martin rolled out the first weight-optimized F-35A, designated AF-1. It was the first F-35 built at full production speed, and is structurally identical to the production F-35As that were delivered starting in 2010. On 5 January 2009, six F-35s had been built, including AF-1; another 13 pre-production test aircraft and four production aircraft were being manufactured.Moore, Mona. "F-35 production on target". Northwest Florida Daily News, 5 January 2009, Volume 62, Number 341, p. A1. On 6 April 2009, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates proposed speeding up production for the U.S. to buy 2,443 F-35s.Gearan, Anne. "Defense Secretary Gates proposes weapons cuts". The Seattle Times, 7 April 2009.
Program cost overruns and delays 2006–2011 The F-35 program has experienced a number of cost overruns and developmental delays. The program's delays have come under fire from the U.S. Congress and some U.S. Department of Defense officials. The program has undergone a number of reassessments and changes since 2006. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) warned in March 2006 that excessive concurrency ("an overlap of flight testing and initial production") might result in expensive refits for several hundred F-35 aircraft that are planned for production before design testing is completed.GAO-06-356, "DOD Plans to Enter Production before Testing Demonstrates Acceptable Performance" . GAO, March 2006. In 2010, acquisition chief Ashton Carter issued an Acquisition Decision Memorandum restructuring the F-35 program. In November 2010, the GAO found that "Managing an extensive, still-maturing global network of suppliers adds another layer of complexity to producing aircraft efficiently and on-time" and that "due to the extensive amount of testing still to be completed, the program could be required to make alterations to its production processes, changes to its supplier base, and costly retrofits to produced and fielded aircraft, if problems are discovered".GAO-11-233SP, "Defense Acquisitions: Assessments of Selected Weapon Programs". Gao.gov, 29 August 2008. Retrieved 4 December 2011. USAF budget data in 2010, along with other sources, projected the F-35 to have a flyaway cost from US$89 million to US$200 million over the planned production run."FY 2011 Budget Estimates". U.S. Air Force, February 2010, pp. 1–47. In February 2011, the Pentagon put a price of $207.6 million on each of the 32 aircraft to be acquired in FY2012, rising to $304.16 million (a total acquisition cost of $9.7 billion for 32 aircraft) if its share of research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) spending is included.