JSF Lite?

Hi gang,
I just found this.

JSF-Lite coming to market?

11 November 2003

The US DoD has awarded a $603 million contract to Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Fort Worth Texas for “… the procurement of supplies and services to support the performance of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) International Partner Version Delta Systems development and demonstration effort.”

Lockheed Martin is being asked to design, develop, verify and test a version of the JSF air system that is as common as possible to the US air system within the National Disclosure Policy (emphasis added). Lockheed Martin will also implement a manned tactical simulation (MTS) capability, hold MTS events for the international partners on the JSF Programme and conduct planning for future efforts and upgrades.

Taken in conjunction with the recent vigorous and vocal struggle over the politically volatile issue of ‘Buy American’ led by House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-California) and his Republican colleagues, this latest contract award may well start alarm bells ringing in the various countries that have bought into the JSF programme, expecting to be recompensed by significant work packages on the aircraft.

It also raises the spectre, highlighted in the November edition of Defence Analysis, the respected monthly UK defence newsletter, of a JSF-Lite akin to the F-16/79. That aircraft, an attempt to create an F-16 that could be sold on the export market, but which would not threaten the USA’s capabilities. The F-16/79 was deliberately designed to be less capable than its sibling, with a reduced weapons load, and powered by the significantly less muscular J29 engine. However, none were sold, as buyers realised that other aircraft were on the market with better specifications.

Should the ‘ International Partner Version Delta System’ be markedly less capable than the US JSF, and the opportunities for substantial sub-contract work slip away, the attraction of the new kid on the block may well diminish rapidly and foreign buyers may turn to the other fourth generation fighters (such as Gripen, Rafale and Eurofighter) which could be delivered before 2015, the earliest realistic date for deliveries of the export JSF.