Dodgy software will bork America's F-35 fighters until at least 2019

**boutons_deux** · 03-24-2016

$1,000,000,000,000 fleet offers literal Blue Screen of Death

The F-35 multirole fighter won't be close to ready before 2019, the US House Armed Services Committee was told on Wednesday.

The aircraft, which is supposed to reinvigorate the American military's air power, is suffering numerous problems, largely down to flaws in the F-35's operating system. These include straightforward code crashes, having to reboot the radar every four hours, and serious security holes in the code.

Michael Gilmore, the Pentagon's director of operational test and evaluation, reported that the latest F-35 operating system has 931 open, do ented deficiencies, 158 of which are Category 1 – classified as those that could cause death, severe injury, or severe illness.

"The limited and incomplete F-35 cybersecurity testing accomplished to date has nonetheless revealed deficiencies that cannot be ignored," Gilmore said in his testimony [PDF].

"Cybersecurity testing on the next increment of ALIS [Autonomic Logistics Information System] – version 2.0.2 – is planned for this fall, but may need to be delayed because the program may not be able to resolve some key deficiencies and complete content development and fielding as scheduled."

He reported that around 60 per cent of aircraft used for testing were grounded due to software problems. He cited one four-aircraft exercise that had to be cancelled after two of the four aircraft aborted "due to avionics stability problems during startup."

In another exercise, conducted by the Marine Corps in May 2015, the exercise was delayed because file formatting problems meant target information couldn't be uploaded to the aircraft. The US Air Force had similar problems, aborting a test after none of the aircraft could fly due to startup problems requiring software and hardware shutdowns and restarts.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03...leet_til_2019/

MIC's totally fraudulent corporate welfare sucking down taxpayer $Ts. Corporate chiefs and MIC investors stealing from taxpayers.

**boutons_deux** · 03-24-2016

Pentagon to move ahead with $3 billion F-35 upgrade program in 2018

The Pentagon expects to award contracts for a $3 billion, six-year effort to upgrade its newest warplane, the Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jet, by the end of 2018,

the Defense Department would make every effort to ensure oversight and transparency of the modernization drive,

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-lo...e=domesticNews

Just more evidence that the MIC and their Congressional s are 100% corrupt, a vampire squid sucking taxpayers dry.

**Winehole23** · 09-29-2018

Speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement, a defense official told AFP that the Marine Corps F-35 had crashed outside Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-f-3...e-stealth-jet/

**Winehole23** · 09-29-2018

Well into the second year of the Trump administration, “draining the swamp” is more of a hapless zigzag than a charge against Washington’s sacred cows.

Case in point: the earmarking process. Despite a 2011 ban on congressional earmarking, lawmakers have found ways to bake “inducements” into massive defense and infrastructure bills. Tallying and tabulating the earmarks found in the fiscal year (FY) 2019 Defense Appropriations Bill, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) found 679 earmarks totaling $19.3 billion. These earmarks fuel unnecessary and unaccountable programs that harm taxpayers and service members alike.

One large winner from the still-widespread earmarking process is the F-35 aircraft program, slated to run taxpayers an estimated $1.5 trillion due to the combined costs of construction, fuel, and maintenance over a 20-year time frame. The cost overruns are infamous, with a 7 percent jump in price over the past year alone. The program’s executive officer, Mathias W. Winter, claimed in a hearing that, despite poor management decisions over the past 20 years, the situation has improved since 2011’s clock reset and the F-35 program has become more affordable and reliable. Yet average F-35 costs have more than doubled since the program’s inception in 2001. Taxpayers have seen the per-aircraft cost rise from $62.2 million to $158.4 million, and it would have been even higher if the Pentagon hadn’t taken well-do ented shortcuts in the construction process. Despite these warnings and cost overruns, however, the House added $740 million for eight additional F-35s in the current spending bill.

A June 2018 report from the Government Accountability Office noted that F-35 aircraft had 111 deficiencies that “may cause death, severe injury, or severe occupational illness; may cause loss or major damage to a weapon system; critically restricts the combat readiness capabilities of the using organization; or result in a production line stoppage.” An additional 855 deficiencies could “impede or constrain successful mission accomplishment.”

https://www.theamericanconservative....en-more-f-35s/

**Quadzilla99** · 09-30-2018

Originally Posted by boutons_deux

$1,000,000,000,000 fleet offers literal Blue Screen of Death

The F-35 multirole fighter won't be close to ready before 2019, the US House Armed Services Committee was told on Wednesday.

The aircraft, which is supposed to reinvigorate the American military's air power, is suffering numerous problems, largely down to flaws in the F-35's operating system. These include straightforward code crashes, having to reboot the radar every four hours, and serious security holes in the code.

Michael Gilmore, the Pentagon's director of operational test and evaluation, reported that the latest F-35 operating system has 931 open, do ented deficiencies, 158 of which are Category 1 – classified as those that could cause death, severe injury, or severe illness.

"The limited and incomplete F-35 cybersecurity testing accomplished to date has nonetheless revealed deficiencies that cannot be ignored," Gilmore said in his testimony [PDF].

"Cybersecurity testing on the next increment of ALIS [Autonomic Logistics Information System] – version 2.0.2 – is planned for this fall, but may need to be delayed because the program may not be able to resolve some key deficiencies and complete content development and fielding as scheduled."

He reported that around 60 per cent of aircraft used for testing were grounded due to software problems. He cited one four-aircraft exercise that had to be cancelled after two of the four aircraft aborted "due to avionics stability problems during startup."

In another exercise, conducted by the Marine Corps in May 2015, the exercise was delayed because file formatting problems meant target information couldn't be uploaded to the aircraft. The US Air Force had similar problems, aborting a test after none of the aircraft could fly due to startup problems requiring software and hardware shutdowns and restarts.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03...leet_til_2019/

MIC's totally fraudulent corporate welfare sucking down taxpayer $Ts. Corporate chiefs and MIC investors stealing from taxpayers.

So we should increase military spending to fix this?

**Winehole23** · 09-22-2023

still a money pit

The F-35 fleetmission capable rate—the percentage of time the aircraft can perform one of itstasked missions—was about 55 percent in March 2023, far below program goals.This performance was due in part to challenges with depot and organizationalmaintenance (see fig.). The program was behind schedule in establishing depotmaintenance activities to conduct repairs. As a result, component repair timesremained slow with over 10,000 waiting to be repaired—above desired levels. Atthe same time, organizational-level maintenance has been affected by a numberof issues, including a lack of technical data and training.

The Department of Defense (DOD) relies heavily on its contractor to lead andmanage F-35 sustainment (see fig.). However, as DOD seeks expandedgovernment control, it has neither (1) determined the desired mix of governmentand contractor roles, nor (2) identified and obtained the technical data needed tosupport its desired mix. The military services must take over management of F35 sustainment by October 2027 and have an opportunity to make adjustments—specifically to the contractor-managed elements. Reassessing its approach couldhelp DOD address its maintenance challenges and reduce costs.

https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-105341.pdf