Un' altra serie di notizie tutt' altro che incoraggianti .....
And No Fix On Fifth Gen Comms .....
John A. Tirpak (5/22/2015)
Not only hasn’t the Air Force solved the problem of how to get its fifth-generation F-22s and F-35s talking to each other, it still hasn’t figured out whose job it is to fix the problem, service F-35 integration director Maj. Gen. Jeff Harrigian said Thursday.
“It’s not me,” he told reporters after an AFA Mitchell Institute event, adding that the inability of the two fighters to stealthily communicate is one of the problems that drove the creation of his office, which serves as a single point of contact between USAF, the F-35 Joint Program Office, and the contractors.
“You’ve got to have the ‘who owns this?’” discussion, he said, adding that he is working with Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh and Air Combat Command chief Gen. Hawk Carlisle to answer it.
He said the looming inception of the F-35 into the fleet could be a “forcing function” to solve not only fifth-to-fifth gen comms, but also fourth-to-fifth and other issues.
He said he’s “cautiously optimistic” about a solution, noting, “there’s things being done on this,” but as to command and control issues, “I haven’t taken that on, yet.”
Industry officials suggested the problem might not be USAF’s fault, given that USAF can’t buy a solution unless it’s compatible with an inter-service interoperability standard … and there may not be one, yet.
The two jets actually can communicate one-way: F-22s can receive info from F-35s via the Link 16 datalink, but not send.
The Bumpy Path to F-35 IOC .....
John A. Tirpak (5/22/2015)
The Air Force is holding to its Aug. 1, 2016, initial operational capability date for the F-35A, but this date should be seen as merely a “pit stop” on the way to a more robust capability, Air Force F-35 integration director Maj. Gen. Jeff Harrigian said Thursday.
At an AFA Mitchell Institute briefing in Arlington, Va., Harrigian said, “the plan to [get] to IOC is solid,” and he’s satisfied USAF will have the 12 jets needed with the necessary software, maintainers, and parts in order for Gen. Hawk Carlisle, Air Combat Command chief, to declare IOC on time.
However, there are “challenges” to achieving IOC, including having deployable versions of the Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS) maintenance kit and some software, which is behind schedule.
He said Carlisle thinks “there will be some deficiencies,” and has some “concerns about data fusion” on the F-35, but these may not be sufficient to delay IOC.
Harrigian also said that correcting some deficiencies in the 3F version of F-35 software may “slip” to be corrected in the Block 4 update, which is supposed to be a series of improvements and upgrades to weapons and functionality.
F-35 system program office spokesman Joe Della Vedova acknowledged there will be “some cleanup” in the Block 4 update.
Features Becomes Upgrades .....
John A. Tirpak (5/22/2015)
Some capabilities planned for the F-35 Block 3F - the planned all-up configuration for all three services flying variants of the fighter - will migrate to the Block 4 upgrade, Air Force F-35 integration director Maj. Gen. Jeff Harrigian explained Thursday.
Most of the planned 3F capabilities that will become part of the first upgrade package live “in the classified world,” Harrigian said, begging off detailing what they are.
“Some of it is hardware-driven, some of it’s software driven,” he told reporters after an AFA Mitchell Institute event.
However, he said USAF is working to find “mitigation strategies” to make sure some of those capabilities “don’t move” from the 3F configuration.
USAF is trying to determine, “What’s the constraint? Is it time? Is it money? ... And, that’s the discussion we need to have” with the Joint Program Office, he said.
La fonte del tutto ... il 'Daily Report' dell'
AFA .....
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