Singapore is about to join the US-led Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme on a small scale, encouraged perhaps by Lockheed Martin's promises of early export deliveries. However, fulfilling the promise looks increasingly unlikely as the programme incurs delays caused by weight problems.
Earlier this year, the US Department of Defense added one year and $5 billion to the JSF system development and demonstration programme to give Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems and their suppliers more time to overcome weight problems with the F-35B short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) variant.
It is ironic that the company many believe won the JSF competition because of the lower risk and higher performance of its lift-fan STOVL propulsion system should suffer weigh problems.
As the programme heads towards its critical design review in April, the aircraft is 5,000-1,000kg (1,100-2,200lb) overweight. This is 4-8% of the empty weight and is not as serious a problem for the US Air Force's conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) F-35A or the US Navy's carrier-capable F-35C as it is for the STOVL F-35B under development for US Marine Corps and UK Royal Air Force and Royal Navy.
Delaying the start of low-rate initial production by a year will buy the Lockheed Martin-led team more time for technology to mature that can bring down weight. The three-variant programme may also be reshuffled, to delay flight testing of the STOVL JSF until the weight has been reduced.
Despite its problems - or perhaps because of them - the STOVL variant received a massive vote of confidence earlier this month when US Air Force secretary James Roche announced that the USAF intends to convert some of its 1,763 planned F-35As to F-35Bs.
This has almost certainly removed any threat of cancellation that might have been hanging over the STOVL variant, although the change still has to go through the normal budget process.
Experience in Afghanistan and Iraq has led the USAF to believe the STOVL JSF would be ideal for close air-support because of its ability to operate from runways that are in poor condition, but close to US ground forces. Under the new plan, F-35Bs would replace the USAF's invaluable Fairchild A-10 close air-support aircraft.
The UK Ministry of Defence, which has selected the F-35B to re-equip the jointly operated RAF/RN BAE Systems Harrier force, is familiar with the flexibility of forward basing, and with the high sortie-generation rates that can be achieved with a STOVL aircraft - the UK's main rationale for sticking with STOVL despite the intent to move to large-deck carriers.Whether the F-35B becomes a player on the export market remains to be seen. For now, most of the international partners on the JSF programme have professed interest in the CTOL F-35A as a direct replacement for their Lockheed Martin F-16s or Boeing F-18s.
Informed
Singapore will be the 10th international partner to join the JSF programme when it signs up as a security co-operative participant (SCP), possibly here at the show. A $50 million investment will gain Singapore the data on which to make an informed decision about whether the F-35 will meet its future fighter requirements.
Since its Block 60 F-16 was eliminated from Singapore's current fighter competition late last year, Lockheed Martin has been trying to recast the battle between the Boeing F-15T, Dassualt Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon as an interim fighter contest by offering JSF export deliveries as early as 2012.
A similar offer has been made in South Korea, which has already selected the F-15K but is also considering joining the JSF programme at a low level as a foreign military sales participant. Deliveries as early as 2012 look increasingly unlikely, however, with procurement of aircraft for the US forces having been pushed back a year.
With the small stakes that Singapore and South Korea plan to take in the programme, industrial participation should not be the major issue it is for most of the other international partners.
Several have expressed dissatisfaction with the quantity of work being placed with their industries.
GRAHAM WARWICK
Source: Flight Daily News
