JANE'S DEFENCE WEEKLY - APRIL 11, 2007

JSF fails to meet interoperability requirements

JSF engineers cannot currently meet their interoperability requirement
because a new military satellite system is not yet ready to be
integrated into the JSF cockpit JSF officials say they can work around
the delay and that software upgrades are on track Engineers developing
the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) will
have to work around a gap in the aircraft's beyond-line-of-sight
communications until at least 2010, JSF programme officials said on 2
April. The Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), a next-generation
military satellite system, is still under development and will not be
ready for the JSF until at least 2010, when the Block 4 software
upgrade of the JSF is expected to begin. The delay means that the JSF
is not currently meeting its interoperability requirement, according
to Captain Wade Knudson, the US Navy's Air Vehicle director in the JSF
programme office. "It's not a problem on our side; it's a problem with
the other programme," said Capt Knudson. "The timing was not phased
correctly for our preliminary design review." Capt Knudson and other
JSF programme officials emphasised that MUOS is not running late but
rather that its development schedule simply does not match up with the
timeline for JSF software development. JSF officials are currently
putting the finishing touches to their requirements for the Block 3
software upgrade and said the MUOS simply is not advanced enough in
development to be included. "We're waiting for MUOS but it's not
because anybody is behind; it's just because the timing didn't work
out for Block 3," said Kathy Crawford, a spokeswoman for the JSF
programme office. Capt Knudson and Stephen O'Bryan, Lockheed Martin
F-35 Business Development senior manager for US Navy programmes, said
the interoperability gap is the result of a decision by JSF programme
managers to wait for the next generation of military satellite
communications rather than installing out-dated satellite
communications technology in the JSF. "We could integrate with the old
satellite system and then pay money again for MUOS but we decided not
to do the integration with the older satellite system," said O'Bryan.
Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor on the JSF, also happens to be
the prime contractor for MUOS. In 2004 the US Navy awarded the company
a contract worth as much as USD3.3 billion to build as many as five
MUOS satellites. Capt Knudson said JSF engineers will build in space
in the cockpit for the MUOS system and will attempt to integrate
appropriate hardware in the cockpit to accommodate the system when it
is ready. However, he said JSF engineers would not be able to develop
the software interface for the MUOS until they know more about the
software and waveforms the system uses. Software integration is a
notoriously complex phase in the life of a fighter jet development
programme; JSF engineers must develop over 22 million lines of code -
six times as much as the F-22A Raptor. The US Government
Accountability Office (GAO) has singled out 2007 and 2008 as
challenging years in the life of JSF development because all five
blocks of software code will be in development at the same time.
However, Lockheed Martin and JSF government officials remain
optimistic and maintain that software development is still running on
schedule. Tom Burbage, Lockheed Martin's executive vice president for
JSF, told Jane's on 2 April that the company is on track to conduct in-
flight tests of JSF software starting in October. The software will be
tested on board the CATBird, a modified Boeing 737 that gets its
acronym from its full title: the BAE Systems Co-operative Avionics
Testbed. Burbage said engineers will begin installing the first round
of software - known as Mission Systems Software Block 0.5 - in the
CATBird in August. Block 0.5 will include the software code for three
elements of the JSF's mission systems: electronic warfare systems;
radar; and communication, navigation and identification (CNI) systems.
Engineers will install an engineering station for CNI in the CATBird
in August, a station for electronic warfare in September and a station
for radar in October, according to Burbage.