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Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Pentagon Extends F-35 Software Testing to Fix Flaws (creates an inaccurate picture for the pilot)

Pentagon Extends F-35 Software Testing to Fix Flaws
Anthony Capaccio 5:39 PM IST March 24, 2015
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-24/f-35-software-testing-for-marine-version-extended-to-fix-flaws

(Bloomberg) -- The Pentagon has extended testing to debug software flaws
that must be fixed before the first F-35 jets from Lockheed Martin Corp. can
be fully ready for combat.

The Marine Corps wants to declare its version of the F-35, the costliest
U.S. weapons system, ready for limited combat as soon as July. Flight
testing of software essential to delivering the plane’s promised
capabilities was supposed to be completed last month, about four months
late, but now may take until mid-June, according to the Pentagon’s test
office.

Air Force Lieutenant General Chris Bogdan, the F-35 program’s manager, told
reporters on Tuesday that the deficiencies will be fixed later this year and
aren’t severe enough to delay the Marine Corps declaration. The service
“understands the limitations, and has operational workarounds to ensure they
have the capability they need,” he said.

Even with software deficiencies, Bogdan said, the Marine F-35 will be able
to drop bombs and fire air-to-air weapons. “I support the Marine Corps,” he
said. “If it’s good enough for them, then it’s going to be good enough for
me.”

A declaration that the plane, known as the Joint Strike Fighter, is ready
for initial operations would be this year’s biggest milestone for the $391.1
billion program. The Marine model, designed for short takeoffs and vertical
landings, is the most complex of three being built. The U.K. and Italy are
buying this version.

Flying Computer

The F-35 is a flying computer. Each of the planes made by Bethesda,
Maryland-based Lockheed will have more than 8 million lines of code, more
than any previous U.S. or allied fighter.

The F-35 program has extended testing of modified software “intended to
correct deficiencies,” Air Force Major Eric Badger, the test office’s
spokesman, said in an e-mail. “It began flight testing last week,” he said.

The Pentagon program office determined last month that an additional
software version of the “Block 2B” software must be tested “based on a
number of deficiencies revealed by ongoing testing, including problems with
fusion” of data compiled by the aircraft’s sensors that operate its combat
systems, Badger said.

Bogdan said the deficiencies were discovered in the most complicated test
sorties, when four F-35s practiced observing air and ground threats, passing
that information to each other via data links and using their onboard
computers to fuse the data and generate a common picture.

The software sometimes “creates an inaccurate picture for the pilot,” he
said. “We have always said that fusion is going to be tough.”

Michael Gilmore, the Pentagon’s director of combat testing, said in a letter
to lawmakers in January that it’s clear the software “will finish with
deficiencies remaining that will affect operational units.”

Gilmore said through Badger, the spokesman, that he still holds that view.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tony Capaccio in Washington at
acapaccio@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: John Walcott at
jwalcott9@bloomberg.net Larry Liebert

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