The Pentagon has decided to stop work on an alternate helmet for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter being developed by BAE Systems, the program office said yesterday.
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| Photo by Lockheed Martin. |
The decision comes after improvements to the primary helmet being developed by a Rockwell Collins [COL]-Elbit partnership has shown increased maturity and yielded cost savings of 12 percent from previous estimates, F-35 program spokesman Joe DellaVedova said.
Dropping the BAE helmet should save about $45 million, DellaVedova said. DellaVedova said the program office plans to evolve the Rockwell/Elbit helmet into a more advanced version that will include an improved night vision camera, new liquid crystal displays and automated alignment and software improvements.
The helmet currently used will meet the Marine Corps plans for F-35 initial operational capability in 2015, and the new version will meet requirements to complete test and development in 2017, he said.