Acting Minister Of Defense Says Overall Program Risk For His Country Reduced

Australia's Acting Minister for Defence Jason Clare said Thursday he welcomes the restructure of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Program by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The restructure follows a detailed six month Technical Baseline Review of the JSF Program's progress by the US Department of Defense to examine the remaining development tasks and the resources and time required to complete them.

 
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The restructure will see an extension of the System Design and Development phase and a reduction in the production rate in the earlier batches of aircraft. The US will fund costs associated with extended design and test activity.

Australia is purchasing the CTOL variant. The US Air Force is also purchasing this variant. Secretary Gates confirmed Thursday that this variant was on schedule and proceeding satisfactorily, and that in 2010 it exceeded its test flight targets.

Clare welcomed the news that the development of the aircraft Australia is purchasing is on schedule and proceeding satisfactorily. "It is less expensive and less complex than the other variants. The restructure announced by Secretary Gates means it is now at the front of the production queue," he said.

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Defence has advised that the restructure of the US JSF Program will reduce overall program risk to Australia and should not affect Australia's planned introduction date for the JSF. The Australian Government approved the acquisition of the first 14 aircraft in November 2009. The first two aircraft will be delivered in 2014. The first 10 aircraft will initially remain in the United States for pilot and maintainer training. The remaining four aircraft are planned to arrive in Australia in 2017 for operational test and evaluation activities with other ADF equipment to achieve an initial operational capability in Australia from 2018.

Defence has also advised it is confident Australia has adequate buffers in place to withstand any changes to the cost and schedule. "Australia has always adopted a conservative approach to JSF cost estimates and has explicitly included contingency funds and buffers to the schedule," Clare said. "While there is no need to change our cost and schedule estimates, Defence will continue to assess options to ensure that cost and schedule buffers remain adequate."

FMI: www.defence.gov.au