In a ceremony at the historic US Air Force Plant No.4 in Fort Worth Texas on July 24, the first two Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters for the Royal Australian Air Force were formally rolled out.
The ceremony was attended by dignitaries including Australia’s ambassador to the US Kim Beazley, Minister for Finance Senator Mathias Cormann, Shadow Minister for Defence Senator Stephen Conroy, and Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Geoff Brown.
The first aircraft was unveiled during the ceremony while the second served as a backdrop for refreshments served to VIPs afterwards. They are the first of a total of 72 aircraft for the Royal Australian Air Force, including the commitment by the government in April for 58 aircraft.
The aircraft will be retained in the US to support international Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) pilot training and it will be either late 2018 or 2019 before the first aircraft arrive in Australia.
US partnership Senator Cormann, who was standing in for Defence Minister David Johnston described Australia’s involvement in the controversial JSF program as an important part of the strategic partnership with the US.
“This is an important addition to significantly enhance our air defence capabilities in Australia, as part of a broader partnership to provide security in our region. It also offers significant opportunities for us in terms of our manufacturing base in Australia, so we have good national security reasons, good industry policy reasons and overall it was assessed as being in Australia’s national interests,” he said.
“It has been a major project for Australia and it was great foresight by then Minister for Defence Robert Hill to recognise the importance of the F-35 program. Australia became a partner in the F-35 for many good reasons, which are as valid today as they were a decade ago.”
Hornet Replacement The 72 aircraft to be acquired will succeed the current F/A-18A/B ‘classic’ Hornet fleet in three fighter squadrons and an operational conversion unit. In the future the F-35A will also be considered to succeed Australia’s F/A-18F Super Hornets but Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Brown used his address to caution against regarding the JSF as merely a Hornet replacement.
“In my view the F-35 doesn’t replace anything. If I looked at the F-35 as a replacement for our Hornets and Super Hornets I would undermine from day one, the real capability of this aircraft. Like any revolutionary capability, its potential to generate effects beyond the mainstream will have far-reaching impacts in any future application,” he asserted.
“I view the F-35 as a platform that can operate across the spectrum, from tactical to strategic, and anywhere in between, as required. It will be a key node in our new fluid force concepts.”
Air Marshal Brown said that the most important thing to a modern defence force such as the ADF is that superior air combat power is achieved as a precursor to any operations on land, at sea or in the air and he also cautioned that it is easy for this to be taken for granted.
“For Australia it’s a fundamental part of our defence strategy, and the cornerstone of our national security,” he said.
“Today represents a very significant day for the Royal Australian Air Force, as we step down as the fourth nation in the world to take delivery of a fifth generation aircraft. It enables the transition of the Australian Defence Force into a fifth generation enabled defence force.”
F-35 capabilities Describing the F-35A as ‘a catalyst for an evolution and in some ways, a revolution’, Air Marshal Brown said that the most impressive aspect of its capabilities is what it brings in situational awareness and decision dominance for the entire joint combined air, land and maritime forces deployed in and around an area of operations.
“F-35 will give us an exponential leap over preceding aircraft in situational awareness and that is, in my mind, the key factor in fifth generation capability,” he noted.
“Just as the Bristol Boxkite of 1914 caused a revolution in the way operations were conducted, the introduction of the F-35 will cause a similar step change in the way we prepare for and conduct operations in the future.
“We are introducing into service a revolutionary capability and our evolution as a force must align with the opportunities that this offers us,” later adding: “It really is a big change, bigger than a lot of people realise.”
Remaining program risk The Australian aircraft won’t fly until later this year, possibly as late as November, while they await final clearance of their flight critical software.
They are part of Low Rate Initial Production Lot Six (LRIP6) and are fitted with upgraded computer processors compared with earlier aircraft.
Software development has been problematical, and one of the main reasons the JSF program was ‘re-baselined’ a couple of years ago. Since then the focus of the Joint Project Office (JPO) and Lockheed Martin has been on the certification of an earlier version, known as Block 2B, to support the US Marine Corps, as they will be the first to achieve Initial Operating Capability (IOC) in July 2015.
LRIP6 aircraft are the first to come off the production line with Block 3I software installed and, although this is effectively the same as Block 2B, it is hosted on the newer processors and therefore requires validation.
Despite the focus on the Block 2B software however, Block 3I software is already installed in test aircraft and validation is underway. According to Lockheed Martin, this work is on track to be completed in September, allowing acceptance testing of the 36 LRIP6 aircraft to begin soon afterwards.
US Air Force Lieutenant General Chris Bogdan, head of the Joint Program Office says he is now happy with software development progress and now considers other issues the main risk to the timetable looking forwards.
“The engineering discipline and rigour that we revamped the software programme with two years ago is starting to pay good dividends. And in fact the proof of that is the critical path to Marine Corps IOC and Air Force IOC now, does not run through software – it runs through modifying airplanes to make them production and warfighter capable,” he told ADM.
“So, while software is still the most difficult thing in the programme, it is becoming less and less difficult. That doesn’t mean we don’t have challenges in the future, but we’re being much more predictable about the software now.”
Transition to F-35 From an Australian program perspective, Air Marshal Brown agrees. “I’m just not fundamentally worried about the jet, the biggest task we’ve actually got is the transition,” he said.
“When I talk to my team, the thing I keep emphasising is that the worst thing we can do, is bring this thing in and use it like an F/A-18. We’ve got to hit the ground running, with new tactics and new procedures, to get the best out of it.”
The two Australian F-35As will be flown to Luke Air Force Base in Arizona early next year, to form part of an international pool of aircraft to support initial pilot training.
The third and subsequent aircraft will be built beginning in LRIP10, which means there will be a break of two years. AIRMSHL Brown says this ‘breathing space’ will allow the RAAF time to learn important lessons about the operation of 5th generation combat aircraft.
“We will get a few guys trained, plus the F-22 exchanges as well, plus the Super Hornet - because the Super Hornet does have parts of this technology embedded - so we’ve really got a bit of a head start,” he said.
“Compared with the Mirage/FA-18 transition, we’re very focussed that we don’t do that the same way, to maximise the capabilities of the jet. So you have to take a different mindset, you have a different piece of equipment with very different capabilities.
“We’re also involved with the US Operational Test and Evaluation (OT&E) as well, so I think we’ll be well ahead of the game.”
AIRMSHL Brown said that a lot of tactics development work is underway in the simulator already in the US, which will also stand the RAAF in good stead when deliveries to Australia get underway later in the decade.
“The big issues are really our training, so our workforce that’s used to operating F/A-18s or doing the maintenance or the logistics are really the big challenges right now and setting up a logistics system,” he concluded.
Disclaimer: The writer travelled to Fort Worth as a guest of Lockheed Martin
