Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC
The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme has entered the final phase of competition with the issue of an initial request for proposals to Boeing and Lockheed Martin, as the programme office attempts to reinstate funding to begin full engineering manufacturing and development (EMD) in June next year.
With the release of the RFP - newly renamed as a call for improvements (CFI) - the manufacturers can begin drafting proposals in the lead-up to the scheduled final submission in November. Through consultation with Boeing and Lockheed Martin the CFI will be refined by September, when a final RFP will be issued.
"The CFI says 'give me a proposal based on all your work and give me a big plan on how you're going to do this aircraft over the next 30 to 40 years'," says Maj Gen Mike Hough, JSF programme director. "We're going to do this iteratively. When we get this finalised there will be no surprises and it will be very well understood."
Neither short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) versions of the Boeing X-32 and Lockheed Martin X-35 concept demonstrators are expected to fly before the end of the year, requiring that flight test data will have to be inserted into the proposals after submission. "We want to do a downselect before 1 June next year," says Hough.
The programme office's next task is to persuade the US Congressional budget conference to put back $150 million into JSF funding that was cut when the Senate and House voted to delay the start of EMD.
This was further compounded by the shift of some of the remaining budget back into the concept demonstration phase, leaving the programme $400 million short of the $1 billion it originally requested for EMD.
"When I get through with the downselect, I'm through with that phase. I need that money back. I want to give the bulk of it to start EMD. I will put it to good use, it will not be wasted. It will be spent in the right direction kick-starting EMD," says Hough.
A 126-month development period will follow, with the critical design review scheduled for 2002 and the first of 10 planned pre-production JSFs flying in early 2005.
The first 13 low rate production aircraft will be delivered in 2008 to Block 1 capability equipped with the Raytheon AIM-120 AMRAAM and Boeing Joint Direct Attack Munition. The first fully compliant operational Block 3 fighter will be delivered in 2010.
Source: Flight International
