preview

Essay on Joint Strike Fighter (Jsf)

Better Essays

Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Ron D. Knapp Professor Michael Meadows Park University Internet Campus A course paper presented to the School of Arts and Sciences and Distance Learning in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Baccalaureate LG201 - Systems Engineering and Analysis Park University October 09, 2011 The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program began with defense reviews conducted by the Clinton Administration after taking office in 1992. At the time, several government organizations were working on the next-generation strike aircraft. Following an intense competition, the U.S. Department of Defense on 26 October 2001, named Lockheed Martin lead …show more content…

The program collected data to manage manufacturing maturity, but currently unproven processes and a lack of flight testing was of concern to the GAO because of a potentially costly future of changes to design and manufacturing processes. Program costs continued to increase and the schedule had slipped since the 2004 rebase line. Very little flight testing occurred as of the report's publication and the first fully integrated aircraft was not expected to begin flight testing for at least 4 years. In 2007 the Department of Defense cut the number of test aircraft and flight test hours to maintain cost and schedule plans. A fully integrated, capable aircraft was not expected to enter flight testing until 2012, increasing risks that problems could be found and would require design and production changes, as well as retrofit expenses for aircraft already built. On May 10, 2009, AA-1 had completed 84 test flights, including a deployment to Eglin AFB. The first SDD STOVL aircraft, BF-1, had completed 14 flights. The second SDD aircraft, BF-2, had its first flight in February 2009. By December 2009, only 4 of 13 test aircraft had been delivered and total labor hours to build the aircraft had increased more than 50 percent above earlier estimates. Late deliveries hampered the development flight test program and affected work on production aircraft, even as plans

Get Access