By Marina Malenic
The Defense Department will provide Israel with final price details for specially modified F-35 Joint Strike Fighters in January, potentially paving the way for the country to become the first international buyer of the new aircraft, a senior program official said yesterday.
Israel submitted a Letter of Request to the program office in July to develop the aircraft using unique electronic warfare systems. It is potentially seeking 25 aircraft from the U.S.-led multinational development effort.
“We’re pricing that out, we owe them a…letter of offer and acceptance probably sometime in January,” John Schreiber, the director of international programs for the F-35 program office, told Defense Daily. The development could proceed in March or April if Israel accepts the terms.
“They have some unique requirements in C4I and EW, and we have basically been able to accommodate those,” he added.
Schreiber said discussions with Japan have also moved forward “now that the F-22 is definitely not going to be exported anywhere outside the United States.” Tokyo had long expressed interest in purchasing the F-22.
“They’re looking more seriously now at the only real fifth-generation fighter available, which is the F-35,” Schreiber said.
He said Japan and South Korea are the next countries “that could come on board pretty quickly.”
Schreiber also dismissed recent news reports that the United Kingdom is considering cutting their buy of B-variant short take-off/vertical landing (STOVL) F-35s. He said the senior British official in the F-35 program office “assured us there’s nothing to it” and that the plan remains purchase of just over 100 aircraft for U.K. carriers.
Schreiber acknowledged that the first STOVL flight of the F-35B has slipped once more.
“It will probably be sometime in December before we fly [the F-35B test aircraft] in STOVL mode,” he said.
Schreiber said the test flight will be the program’s biggest milestone for the next year or so, watched by the partner nations.
“I think that’s the big one,” he said. “The U.K. is, of course, interested in the STOVL flight, and the Italians will be buying the STOVL aircraft.”
Meanwhile, the General Electric [GE]-Rolls-Royce team developing the F136 engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter expects to resume ground testing late next month or early January. The root cause of a test engine issue that arose in September has been identified as “small pieces of a diffuser panel mounting lug” that had come off, the company said in a statement. The issue “does not require a re-design of the combustor.”
Schreiber said partner nations are generally pleased with second engine development, as long as it does not add cost to the program.
“From a partner standpoint, I think the majority of them would tell you that they kind of like the concept of two engines,” he said. “But, if it was going to drive cost and schedule to the program and they were going to have to give up some other things from a capabilities standpoint, they would not be willing to make that trade for the second engine.”