Sounds like Raptor is only achieving fligh-times of three hours before software malfunctions: the target is five hours:-
Lockheed Martin’s F/A-22 fighter jet is lagging the flight-test goals necessary to proceed into combat testing, because of software malfunctions and reliability problems, a U.S. Air Force official said.
The aircraft, in its preliminary test phase, has not generated enough flights to train the number of pilots needed for the more rigorous phase scheduled to begin in April, officials said. Lockheed Martin said it’s making improvements.
Pentagon officials will decide March 22 whether the $71 billion program can enter the next testing — a crucial phase that’s already been delayed three times since 2001. Passage would allow the Pentagon later this year to approve full-rate production. It’s a decision worth up to $21 billion for Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed, the largest U.S. defense contractor. Lockheed makes the F-22 at a Georgia plant, and produces the mid-fuselage in Fort Worth.
“We have found in acceptance testing and initial flight testing that some parts are failing that we didn’t expect to,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Mark Welsh, director of fighter and bomber programs said in an interview in his Arlington, Virginia, office.
The aircraft can’t proceed into the next phase unless improvements are demonstrated this next month, he said.
Lockheed said it’s working with the Air Force to increase the number of test flights and improve the airplane’ avionics.
“The F/A-22 is a brand new and still maturing weapon system that is just now being used in demanding roles analogous to its anticipated future combat use,” Lockheed said in a statement. “As a result, some aircraft components are not demonstrating an appropriate level of reliability. Those systems are being examined and addressed by Lockheed Martin and our suppliers.”
A full-rate production decision would allow the Air Force to increase purchases from 22 aircraft this year to as many as 32 a year starting in 2007. It also allows the Air Force to propose a five-year umbrella contract covering production in 2007-2011 that ensures funding for Lockheed and subcontractors.
Aeronautics programs such as the F/A-22 and the Joint Strike Fighter, produced in Fort Worth, contributed $10.2 billion of Lockheed’s $31.8 billion in revenue last year.
Fourth-quarter sales at Lockheed’s aeronautics business, which makes the F-16 fighter, rose 58 percent to $3 billion. Profit rose to $200 million from $139 million in the year-ago quarter.
The F/A-22 is being designed to replace the F-15C as the top U.S. air-to-air fighter. The program was conceived during the Cold War to counter Soviet MiG jets. The $257 million F/A-22 aircraft — an inflation-adjusted figure that includes everything from initial research to long-range operations and support — is the most expensive ever.
The Pentagon through Sept. 30 had spent $36 billion on the program.
“We’ve got to continue to work on how quickly we identify maintenance problems and the corrections to them,” Welsh said.
The aircraft is also two hours short of demonstrating they can fly a mean time of five hours without experiencing software malfunctions that impede accomplishing the mission, Welsh said.
Lockheed said it’s “focused on resolving remaining avionics performance anomalies” that have kept the aircraft from meeting the five-hour goal.
“We have made significance progress during the past few months and we will continue to upgrade our software to improve the avionics performance,” it said.
Some of the software failures have prevented cockpit systems from properly identifying other aircraft or the radar from spotting targets, Welsh said.
“There’s been improvement, it’s not like they are standing still, but we have to get to five hours,” Welsh said. “There have been a number of common problem reports where fixes have already been identified.”
By Tony Capaccio – Bloomberg News
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March 4, 2004 at 12:51 pm