A Marine Corps official told concerned lawmakers yesterday engineers have worked to control the weight of the developmental Joint Strike Fighter F-35B since tests showed it near its maximum poundage in recent months.
House Appropriations Defense subcommittee (HAC-D) member Jim Moran (D-Va.) quizzed the service leader yesterday about the weight of the short-takeoff and vertical-landing (STVOL) variant of the Lockheed Martin [LMT] aircraft, which Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in January took off a probationary period intended to work out technical issues.
Moran cited data from November showing the F-35B was only 230 pounds shy of its maximum intended weight of 32,557 pounds, saying: “We want to raise that as a warning flag.”
“Given that the F-35B has structural and propulsion design fixes to implement over the coming years, are you concerned that the plane’s potential to breach its maximum weight would put in jeopardy its vertical-landing capability,” the lawmaker asked Assistant Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford.
Dunford told Moran F-35B workers have worked to keep the aircraft’s weight in check since the November assessment was conducted.
“You identified a point in time when there was an issue,” the No. 2 Marine Corps official said. “We are actually better off than we were back in November.”
Pressed by HAC-D Ranking Member Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) on what improvements have been made, Dunford said the F-35B engineering team has worked on an “engineering solution.”
“And weight is an independent variable in every single one of the engineering solutions that’s been identified,” he said.
“Solutions that have been identified for those engineering challenges have been such that they have not penalized the aircraft with regard to weight,” he added. “I think the trends are absolutely in the right direction, and everyone that’s involved with the program is sensitized to the issue of weight and how important that is.”
Testifying at the HAC-D hearing on the Navy and Marine Corps’ fiscal year 2013 budget hearing, Dunford said Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos continues to closely monitor the F-35B’s progress through regular meetings with the program manager and Lockheed Martin.
“He’s involved with every single decision that affects one pound on the F-35,” Dunford said about Amos. The commandant was not at the hearing because he underwent surgery Wednesday.