Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)

On October 26th 2001 the Pentagon announced that the international team led by Lockheed Martin, with partners BAE SYSTEMS and Northrop Grumman, had won the competition to build the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). The F-35 JSF is a single seat, supersonic stealth fighter aircraft, incorporating next-generation technologies, capable of performing multi-role operations from aircraft carriers and land bases. The F-35 is being designed for the US Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, as well as the UK Royal Air Force and Royal Navy to replace the Harrier, F-16, F/A-18 and A-10 aircraft.  Seven other International countries - Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, Netherlands, Norway and Turkey - have also joined the programme as Partners since contract award. The team will produce an initial 23 aircraft in the program’s System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase.

Lockheed Martin was awarded one of two Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Concept Demonstration contracts by the US Department of Defense in November 1996 and flight evaluation of the US Air Force and US Navy demonstrator aircraft was started in October 2000 and successfully completed in March 2001. Highly successful flight trials of the STOVL (Short Take Off and Vertical Landing) took place in the summer of 2001. Production of the first major F-35 subassembly – the center fuselage – began on May 18, 2004 at Northrop Grumman in Palmdale, California. The other two major subassemblies – the wings and forward fuselage at Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth, Texas, and the art fuselage at at BAE SYSTEMS in Samlesbury, England  - were started later in 2004.  These assemblies began the mate process at Fort Worth in the Spring of 2005.  First flight of the F-35 CTOL version  is scheduled for 2006.

The Lockheed Martin team is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. The programme is designed to take advantage of the low-cost, rapid-prototyping and advanced technology knowledge at the Palmdale facility; the integrated product team structure, critical stealth technologies and lessons learned from the F/A-22 programme office in Marietta; and the total systems integration and world-class, lean production capability at Fort Worth. Northrop Grumman brings tactical aircraft integration, carrier suitability, stealth technologies, avionics systems integration, sensors and advanced aircraft manufacturing. BAE SYSTEMS provides its expertise and experience with 40 years of STOVL technology, subcontract management and advanced manufacturing.  Pratt & Whitney  is the prime contractor for the F-35's engine, Rolls-Royce is developing and producing the shaft-driven lift fan for the STOVL variant, and a General Electric/Rolls Royce team is developing an interchangeable engine. Though separated geographically, the team members share a virtual workspace created by shared databases and common audio, video, and computer systems. The total programme is valued at approximately $256 billion over its lifetime, and represents the US Department of Defense’s focal point for defining affordable, next-generation, strike aircraft weapon systems for US and UK military forces and for potential international partners.

UK Involvement
The programmme to fulfill the Harrier aircraft replacement is known in the UK as the Joint Combat Aircraft (JCA) programme, lead by the UK Ministry of Defence Procurement Agency JCA IPT.  In September 2002, the UK Government announced that the STOVL version of the JSF had been selected to meet the requirement to succeed the RAF and RN Harriers.  The UK has been a full collaborative partner with the US since the Concept Demonstration Phase of the JSF programme began in 1996. United Kingdom technology figured heavily in the JSF design, and UK test pilots and flight engineers were instrumental in demonstrating that technology. In the UK alone, the Lockheed Martin JSF team will create approximately 3,400 jobs during System Development and Demonstration (SDD); and during the 30 year production and support phase 8,400 direct, and many thousands indirect, long term, highly skilled, highly paid jobs will be created. The production of the planned 2,593 UK and US aircraft will generate more than £20 billion for UK companies during System Development and Demonstration, and Production and Support. Current international export projections for an additional 2,000 to 3,000 aircraft could mean an extra £24 billion for UK companies over the life of the programme. Additional long-term UK business opportunities exist through major roles in spares production, design evolutions and upgrade programmes.

Links:

• JSF Program Office
• JSF Factsheet
• JCA IPT Website