Posted: June 26th, 2015

The Joint Strike Fighter program (F35) is a complex program which involves too many next generation technologies trying to get integrated into one single airframe to serve the USAF which demands for versatile aircraft with bullet proof reliability and low on life cycle costs.

ABSTRACT The United States Air force decided to develop a multi role fighter which will replace the likes of F- 16, F-18 and A-10 fighter aircraft. The department of defence named the program as Joint Strike Fighter program (JSF). The JSF development contract was signed on 16 November 1996 and Lockheed martin’s X-35 won the evaluation beating Boeing’s X-32. (Alan, D 2014) JSF development is being primarily funded by the United States with additional funding from NATO partners or US allies. (Dudley, R 2012). The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a single-seat, single-engine, all weather stealth multirole fifth generation combat aircraft which is designed to perform ground attack, reconnaissance, and air defence missions. This aircraft is being designed and built by an expert aerospace and defence expertise team led by Lockheed Martin with support from Northrop Grumman, Pratt & Whitney and BAE systems. The United States plans to buy 2,443 aircraft. (F35 official Information). In spite of all the big names involved in the development and design, the program has several times been criticized as the most expensive defence development project in the history of US defence. It has cost more than USD$650 billion till date when only around 147 prototypes were only built. With lots of work still required to make the aircraft fully operational, there are expectations that this will cost more than US$1 trillion dollars (Winslow, 2014) (CFO, 2011).The US Federal Reserve has raised some serious questions about the worth of this project and not to mention the constant problems in engineering, design and integration of some advanced technology into single airframe (Jeffrey & Shawn, 2006). with a poor planning and operations management which has increased the cost of the aircraft significantly. .PROBLEM STATEMENT: The Joint Strike Fighter program (F35) is a complex program which involves too many next generation technologies trying to get integrated into one single airframe to serve the USAF which demands for versatile aircraft with bullet proof reliability and low on life cycle costs. This has led to extensive testing and development of too many prototypes of different specifications. With too many companies and countries involved the development and manufacturing cost has skyrocketed which questions its feasibility. PROJECT OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this project are to look for the feasibility of the Joint strike fighter both in terms of technology integration for the future of air combat and the overall costs including the life cycle cost. REQUIREMENTS TO WRITE PAPER: 1. Only Political and Economic from PEST Analysis of F-35 (4 pages) 2. Risk Management focusing on F35(search for risk management and then relate with that to F35 on key factors)—-5 pages 3. Background to the issue—–Development of F35.—-5 pages 4. Impact on Economy—–5 pages.