Ой, не надо такого борта... Больно ненадежен.Сообщение от Chizh
Lockheed Martin's F/A-22 program can't proceed into the combat-testing phase unless improvements to the avionics system are demonstrated this month, says Air Force Maj. Gen. Mark Welsh, director of fighter and bomber programs.
A Pentagon deadline looms as the company tries to solve problems with Raptor program
By Tony Capaccio
Bloomberg News
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, an Air Force official said.
The aircraft, in its preliminary test phase, hasn't 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 is making improvements.
Pentagon officials will decide March 22 whether the $71 billion program can enter the next testing phase -- a crucial step that has 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 assembles the F/A-22 at a Georgia plant and produces the midfuselage 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 Arlington, Va.
The aircraft can't proceed into the next phase unless improvements are demonstrated this month, he said.
Lockheed said it is 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 would allow the Air Force to propose a five-year umbrella contract covering production in 2007-11 that ensures funding for Lockheed and subcontractors.
Aeronautics programs such as the F/A-22 Raptor and the F-35 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 initial research, long-range operations and support -- is the most expensive ever.
The Pentagon had spent $36 billion on the program through Sept. 30.
"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 that it can fly a mean time of five hours without experiencing software malfunctions that impede its mission, Welsh said.
Lockheed said it is "focused on resolving remaining avionics performance anomalies" that have kept the aircraft from meeting the five-hour goal.
"We have made significant progress during the past few months, and we will continue to upgrade our software to improve the avionics performance," Lockheed said.
Some of the software failures have prevented cockpit systems from properly identifying other aircraft or the radar from spotting targets, Welsh said.
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