Guys, don't get so worked up over this 6th gen crap. After all, the current US 5th gen JSF is now facing long delays, suggesting that China might catch up soon. See below link.
Sky Talk: Yet another F-35 delay reported
November 04, 2010
Yet another F-35 delay reported
Lockheed Martin was supposed to deliver two F-35As to Eglin Air Force Base before the end of the year to begin training pilots, but InsideDefense.com (subscription required) reported late Thursday the Pentagon now wants those planes equipped for further testing and they willb e dispatched to Edwards Air force Base next spring.
Here's an excerpt of their story:
Concerned that production F-35 aircraft are not ready for prime time, the Pentagon is directing six additional months of testing for the first Joint Strike Fighters off the assembly line, a previously unreported development that will delay pilot training until at least the "late summer" of 2011, according to DOD sources.
Vice Adm. David Venlet, program executive officer for the F-35, on Nov. 4 confirmed through a spokesman the latest schedule change for the program, which requires recalibrating target dates for key milestones that were reset in February by Pentagon acquisition executive Ashton Carter as part of an effort to infuse new levels of realism into the program's cost and schedule.
Instead of delivering the first two production aircraft to a training unit at Eglin Air Force Base, FL, this month, as previously planned, the Pentagon is directing JSF prime contractor Lockheed Martin to equip the initial Joint Strike Fighter production variants with testing instrumentation and directing them to Edwards Air Force Base, CA, in April for testing.
"They want to mature the weapon system just a little bit more," said a DOD official.
"We are expecting to deliver the first two LRIP-1 aircraft" -- the first batch of low-rate initial production planes -- "to Edwards Air Force Base in April 2011," said Joe DellaVedova, spokesman for the F-35 Joint Program Office, in an e-mail statement.
At Edwards, the two conventional variants of the F-35A will be flown by test-pilot school aviators who will "burn down risk" by slowly expanding the flight envelope of the new aircraft, said a DOD official.
"It gives the testers an opportunity to do more high-fidelity analysis," said the official. "This was an option that was always on the table."
The goal is to secure an airworthiness certificate for the F-35 by September -- a nine-month delay from the most recent plan -- a step necessary in order to proceed with pilot training, the official said.
Meanwhile, Lockheed in the last two weeks has delayed plans for the first flight of the first JSF production aircraft from the last quarter of 2010 until "spring of 2011," company spokesman John Kent said.