Carol Reed/FORT WORTH
The Lockheed Martin-led Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) team has reached initial agreement with its partners over workshare should its design be selected as the baseline for the next generation of aircraft for the US Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy and potential international partners.
Frank Cappuccio, JSF programme director for the Lockheed Martin team, told Flight International that the notional workshare split will see Lockheed Martin responsible for the cockpit and wing design, with Northrop Grumman leading fuselage development and UK team mate British Aerospace taking the lead on the tail section of the aircraft. A formal workshare agreement between the companies has not yet been signed, but the partners are already working on their respective design areas.
Cappuccio says the work has been allocated according to three criteria:
minimising capital investments to keep the cost of the aircraft low; providing work in areas of proven quality and expertise; partitioning the programme in a way which minimises programme risk relative to management."The fuselage section tends to be an area of expertise Northrop Grumman has through work on programmes such as the F/A-18 and commercial projects such as the Boeing 747-400, while a tremendous amount of work has been carried out by BAe on the tail end of aircraft such as the Eurofighter [EF2000]," Cappuccio says.
The programme split will not affect work by the partners and other international companies working across the whole aircraft, citing BAe's advanced manufacturing technology in composites and thermoplastics.
A "JSF international strategy" is being finalised by Lockheed Martin, which will see wider involvement by companies in the UK, Denmark, Norway, The Netherlands and Canada on the programme should the team win the downselect against a Boeing-led team in 2001.
Companies already selected include Matra BAe Dynamics, Ultra Electronics and GEC of the UK, Fokker, the Dutch National Aerospace Laboratory, Phillips, TNO, Signaal and Delft of the Netherlands, Ericsson of Norway, Terma of Denmark and Canadian virtual prototyping companies.
The UK, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands are key potential investors in JSF production, while Italy, Turkey and, possibly, Israel, may also join.
"The strategy is to create an aircraft which has design attributes which permit the Europeans to have an optional choice to use indigenous capability in the electronics area", Cappuccio says.
An interim programme review recently demonstrated to the US Department of Defense that the team's design is about 95% compliant with the requirements, while being within 5% of the weight and capability target and 10% of the cost milestone.
Cappuccio says that the design should be 99% compliant by mid-1999. A ceiling of $28 million per unit is set for the conventional take-off and landing configuration for the USAF and international partners.
The short take-off/vertical landing variant for the US Marine Corps and Royal Navy, plus the carrier-based version for the US Navy, will cost slightly more, although Cappuccio says the 80% commonality between the variants means the cost difference is down to electronics, weapons and procurement timings.
Virtual prototyping will be used to cut the costs of in-service operation and maintenance, a key component of the competition.
The USA wants at least 2,800 aircraft but, together with international partners, production could rise to around 5,000. Deliveries are due to start in 2007.o
Lockheed Martin will take the cockpit and wings, Northrop Grumman the fuselage, with BAe leading the tail end.
Source: Flight International
