If you are not a plane nerd who remembers British procurement in the 1980s, I will mention a rather peculiar moment in British procurement history, when the British variant of the Tornado strike fighter was delivered without radar because it was not ready.
Instead, it was delivered with concrete ballast in the nose.
The aircraft, or its radar depending on contemporaneous accounts, was nicknamed, "Blue Circle," after a popular brand of concrete at the time.
Well it appears that the latest configuration of the F-35 is being delivered with ballast in place of radar.
This is not because the new APG-85 radar is not ready, but rather because these aircraft were made with mounts for the older APG-81 radar.
The whole JSF program really is a complete cluster-f%$#:Radar mountings in the nose of the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter are different for the current AN/APG-81 by Northrop Grumman and the future AN/APG-85 radar, also by Northrop Grumman–a difference which has helped complicate fielding of the new radar which was to deliver with F-35 Lot 17 but may now instead deliver later, possibly in Lot 20 in the next two years.
“The APG-81 is different than the APG-85, and therefore delivering the aircraft, as currently configured, with an APG-85 radar versus an APG-81 radar is challenging,” Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) said in an interview off the House floor on Feb. 3.
“The bulkhead configuration is key because for both of the radars, they are very different,” he said. “Remember, the bulkhead configuration allows the placement of the radar towards the attitude of the array, and the attitude of the array makes all the difference in the world about how the radar operates.”
A dual mount to accommodate either the APG-85 or the APG-81 would take two years to field, a source told sister publication Defense Daily.
“I know all about it, but the delivery of the aircraft is classified,” Wittman said when asked whether he knew if it were true that Lockheed Martin has been delivering F-35s to the military services since last June without radars, including all F-35As. “I can’t speak to the condition of the aircraft so you’ll have to go to the Air Force, the customer, and ask them about that.”
To say that this is f%$#ed up and sh%$ is an understatement.
0 comments :
Post a Comment