OPINION — “Since early October, the F-35 [jet fighter] program has delivered surge support to Israel. Israeli users are achieving exceptional mission capability rates and the aircraft is proving resilient. We’re learning a tremendous amount and will apply lessons learned to enhance fleet readiness across the globe.”
That was F-35 Program Executive Officer, Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Schmidt, speaking last Tuesday during a House Armed Services Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee hearing.
While the main purpose of the hearing was to update the subcommittee members on the rising costs and technical problems of the expensive and controversial fifth generation F-35 Lightning II fighter plane, members wanted to know how the Israeli-owned F-35s were performing in Gaza.
Troublesome issues with the F-35 need exploration.
Another subcommittee witness, Jon Ludwigson, Director of Contracting and National Security Acquisition for the Government Accountability Office (GAO), said the Defense Department (DoD) plan has been to procure 2,470 F-35s through 2035, to replace older Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps fighter aircraft. The program has delivered since 2011, more than 900 F-35s to the U.S. military services, international partners, and foreign military sales customers.
Ludwigson said that DoD five years ago, began a $10.6 billion modernization effort — known as Block 4 — that was originally meant to add 66 new capabilities by 2026. That effort has swelled to 80 capabilities costing $16.5 billion and now isn’t expected to be done until 2029.
Block 4 will upgrade the F-35’s hardware and software to help the aircraft address new threats that have emerged since DoD established the aircraft’s original requirements in 2000. Ludwigson told the subcommittee, “Block 4 modernization efforts continue to experience developmental delays for important technology updates.”
Overall, according to the GAO, the original F-35 program is more than a decade delayed and $183 billion over its original planned costs. I will discuss these current U.S. F-35 production problems below, but first a quick review of what’s available about the Israeli current use of their F-35 aircraft.
Whereas Schmidt testified “our U.S. F-35 fleet mission capable rate [readiness] averages 57.5%,” another subcommittee witness, Dr. William LaPlante, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, said in his prepared statement, “Notably in Israel, we see surging sustainment support in operations that maximizes fleet readiness with 35 of 39 Israeli Air Force F-35A aircraft and exceeds expectations in combat.”
Readiness refers to taking F-35s returning from missions, refueling and rechecking them, and then being able to launch them on new sorties.
LaPlante also said “one of the good news stories of F-35” was the U.S ability to provide Israel with updated software in terms of “mission data files,” which contain the aircraft’s computer memory of threats it might encounter on an operation and other information needed for combat. He described mission data files as “the brick that goes into the airplane.”
LePlante said, “What Gen. Schmidt and his team did in a week or a week-and-a-half” is to turn around that software and send back to Israel, updated F-35 mission data files. He added, “How you [Schmidt] did that can apply all the way around the world” to other F-35s.
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Schmidt said the F-35’s global sustainment infrastructure and its computer platform, which tracks the need for spare parts and then provides them for F-35s, “are being tested through the current conflict in Israel. Since the war began on 7 October, [the U.S.] Government and industry personnel have worked together to meet emerging Israeli requirements. From operational and technical perspectives, our aircraft and global supply system are proving resilient.”
Outside the subcommittee hearing, Times of Israel reported the Israeli F-35 is called “Adir,” which in Hebrew means “mighty one.” Visiting F-35 Adir jet fighter crews in November, Israel Defense Force (IDF) Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi talked of the close air support provided by the aircraft. Halevi said the F-35 used 2,000 lb GBU-31 JDAM bombs with Israeli troops 200 meters [218 yards] from the Gaza target, missions usually performed with smaller weapons.
Halevi was quoted saying, “We never did anything like this. With very heavy munitions, a very good connection between what the [ground] force needs and what the plane knows to give. This [ F-35] connection of air and land together. We always knew it was strong, we see now that it is much stronger than we knew.”
While the Israeli F-35 Adirs are drawing praise, it must be remembered that Israel controls the sky over Gaza — Hamas has no jet fighters of its own and and few air defense weapons.
Also in November, Breaking Defense reported, “The Israel Defense Forces said that it used F-35 Israeli Adir fighter jets to shoot down a cruise missile this week, the first known cruise missile intercept by the American-made stealth fighter. ‘After tracking the cruise missile’s trajectory, Adir fighter jets were scrambled and successfully intercepted the missile.’”
Back in March 2021, The IDF also announced that one of its F-35s shot down two drones it said were launched from Iran. However, last Tuesday in the House subcommittee hearing, information about the continuing U.S. production of F-35s was not positive.
Under Secretary LePlante delivered some of the bad news saying, “We acknowledge many instances where adversaries’ technologies and capability development rival our own weapon systems” and “to counter these challenges, it is vital that we modernize our systems by delivering integrated capabilities at speed and scale.”
For the F-35, LePlante said, the key efforts were focused on Technology Refresh 3 (TR-3), new computer processors and displays that increase the aircraft’s computational power, which provides the foundation for Block 4 — mostly hardware upgrades that allow the F-35 to carry more weapons, better recognize targets, and improve its electronic warfare capabilities.
Although TR-3 has accomplished many goals over the past eighteen months, “progress has been slower than desired,” LePlante said, and despite some 150 TR-3 test flights, “the current version of software has not been approved for operational use and requires more verification before delivery to the fleet.”
As a result, “the TR-3-configured [F-35] aircraft, currently in production, will be stored by the contractor until the aircraft are determined to be operationally acceptable by the partnership governments,” LePlante said.
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Lt. Gen. Schmidt added, “Block 4 has experienced significant challenges associated with hardware design maturity and software integration timelines.” He said, “Development and production concurrency is Block 4’s most critical challenge, and we are dealing with its consequences today. The TR-3 experience reveals the consequences of accepting high risk in concurrency between development and production.”
Because of that high-risk concurrency in the F-35 Block 4 schedule, there is a threat that aircraft production could be shut down if development slips, Schmidt said. “We are focused on eliminating this concurrency,” he said, “and establishing realistic delivery schedules that U.S. [military] services, F-35 partners, and FMS [foreign military sales] customers can count on.”
Concurrency is not the F-35 production’s only problem.
There also is an engine power and cooling modernization program in the works for future F-35 modernization capabilities.
The engine problem was best explained by the GAO’s Ludwigson, who said, “The current cooling system is over-tasked, requiring the engine to operate beyond its design parameters. The extra heat is increasing the wear on the engine, reducing the engine’s life, and adding a projected $38 billion in maintenance costs over the life of the aircraft.”
Schmidt told the subcommittee that the engine and thermal modernization “will provide increased cooling and electrical power generation required to support capabilities beyond Block 4 for all [F-35] variants, while reducing lifecycle costs through engine life restoration.”
The F-35s also have also experienced delays in the setting up of service depots to complete the most complex repairs, inadequate equipment to keep aircraft operational, and maintenance and supply delays affecting aircraft readiness, according to Ludwigson.
Schmidt testified that component repair facilities were established beginning last year in the U.S., Europe, and Asia-Pacific regions, and new ones continue to be activated to keep up with the demands of a growing fleet.
The availability of test F-35 aircraft is yet another problem. GAO’s Ludwigson reported, “As of May 2023, the program had seven test fleet aircraft, with four devoted to TR-3 testing and three able to test Block 4 capabilities. The program is aware of this testing limitation and plans to incorporate additional test aircraft for a total of 14 flight test aircraft for testing Block 4 capabilities.”
Given all the F-35 production problems, Schmidt told the subcommittee that Undersecretary LaPlante earlier this, year ordered a Technical Baseline Review of F-35 Block 4 development. Schmidt added, “In recent months, an independent group of Navy and Air Force technical experts have been evaluating the Block 4 development schedule, hardware maturity, program risks, software tools, and industry and Government workforce skillsets. We are looking forward to the Technical Baseline Review’s recommendations.”
Everyone is looking for those recommendations, with Pentagon negotiations underway with Lockheed Martin for the next buys of F-35s and a DoD hope that in 2024, it could reach a full rate production decision for this versatile, but troubled, fifth generation fighter aircraft.
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