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Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Pentagon Tester: JSF F-35 Program Risking a "Serious Mishap"

F-35 Lightning IIThe Pentagon's top official for weapons testing sent a sternly worded letter warning the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program and the Air Force that their plans to start unmonitored flight training on the Air Force variant of the JSF F-35 this fall "risks the occurrence of a serious mishap," according to an October 21 memo, first published by the Project On Government Oversight (POGO).

The JSF program and Air Force disagree with the test official's assessment, saying they are appropriately mitigating safety risks. The dispute has gone all the way up to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, reported Bloomberg Government's Tony Capaccio, who first broke news of the memo in a story behind a paywall.

Director of Operational Test and Evaluation Michael Gilmore explained that due to the relatively small amount of monitored flight hours on the JSF (and an even smaller amount on just the Air Force version of the plane), along with a higher abort rate than expected at this point in the program, indicates "the relative immaturity of aircraft."

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