By Emelie Rutherford

Officials steering the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program said signs are good for Japan joining the aircraft effort, and predicted partner nations Norway and Denmark will not drop their plans.

Japan has eyed the JSF program that is developing strike fighter variants for the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marines.

A group of approximately 30 Japanese officials last week concluded a visit to airframe builder Lockheed Martin‘s [LMT] offices, and had “very positive comments about the capabilities of the jet,” Dan Crowley, Lockheed Martin’s F-35 program manager, told reporters in a conference call yesterday.

“We expect to continue a dialogue with the Japanese as they continue their plans to replace their [F-2s] and F-15s,” he said.

The visit was intended “to address both the technical aspects of the program as well as the financial aspects,” Crowley said. It was part of Lockheed Martin’s response to a request for information from Japan, Crowley said.

Air Force Maj. Gen. C.R. Davis, the JSF program executive officer, told reporters yesterday on the same call that U.S. military JSF officials have visited Japan and took part in last week’s visit. Considering that U.S. law prohibits the Japanese from buying F-22s, Davis predicted the country will opt for the JSF.

“The Japanese have clearly stated, again, that their requirement is for the fifth-generation airplane, and everybody understands where the F-22 is in that discussion right now,” Davis said. “I just see this as a matter of time until we get to some type of agreement.”

The general acknowledged concerns about Norway and Denmark’s planned buys, but said he is not concerned about their procurement figures. Eight partner nations are working with the United States on JSF.

“They have to take a look and see if there something out there that can do a better job than the F-35 for their needs,” Davis said about competitions underway in Norway and Denmark. “I have total confidence that all they’re going to select is the F-35 here. So while they have to go through that process, I fully expect when that’s done both Norway and Denmark will go ahead and fully fund their commitments to the F-35 program.”

Both of the nations are funding their portion of the costs the eight partner nations are paying–which in total is 23 percent of non-recurring cost of production activities, he said.

Every one of the eight partner nations is fully funding its share of the program today, Davis said.

The general said information on the JSF’s Selected Acquisition Report (SAR) for the December 2007 reporting period–released Monday by the Pentagon–reflects positively on the program.

“The bottom line…is that as we look at total acquisition cost of the program from this time in 2006 to this one that came out here…total acquisition cost to the program has actually slightly decreased,” Davis told reporters. “The Nunn McCurdy measures have not increased any since last year, neither have the average unit costs of the airplanes increased any since last year, which is kind of unique for this program because it shows we’ve made some progress not only understanding what the costs are but being able to control them to some degree.”

Data from the SAR shows JSF program costs decreased by $981.3 million–from $299.8 billion to $298.8 billion for the December 2007 reporting period (Defense Daily, April 8).