Defence Magazine

The crowd looked on as the pilot pushed forward on the throttle and gently rolled the JSF, flicking through the touch-screens that replace the old dials and instrumentation. The first public outing of the JSF cockpit simulator let many see for themselves the capability of an aircraft they'd previously only read about in the paper.

After three years of hard work, not to mention the extensive media scrutiny, the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program is hitting top gear. The first test flight, and the decision to acquire, are both expected next year. Air Commodore John Harvey, Director General New Air Combat Capability (DGNACC), is pleased with how the program is tracking.

"The aircraft is not delivered yet, but we've been working closely as a part of the program to really understand the JSF to make sure it meets our capability requirement.

"About a year ago Lockheed Martin identified significant weight issues. There was a pause in the program to deal with that, but the weight issues have now been resolved," he says.

The JSF, for those who have missed the media frenzy, is slated to replace Defence's current fleet of F/A-18s and F-111s. Defence joined the system development and demonstration phase of the US led program in October 2002 - along with eight other countries. The NACC team has two objectives: firstly to ensure the aircraft can meet Defence capability requirements and secondly to maximise opportunities for Australian defence industry (see side box).

Air Commodore Harvey puts a lot of the media interest down to some very strong F-111 advocates who "basically want to keep it going forever", but says we need to look to the future.

"The F-111 is a great aircraft - I spent three years flying them and three years as Flight Test Director for their upgrade. But it can't last forever."

"The JSF will offer the sort of capability needed to meet Defence's requirements out as far as 2040. We really see this as a big jump forward in capability. Affordability is also a big feature for us and the whole JSF program, both in terms of acquisition and support costs.

"It really is jumping into the next generation of fighter aircraft. The aircraft you see entering service now, like the F/A- 18E/F, F-16 Block 60, Eurofighter, etc, are all fourth generation. The fifth generation is stealthy, has advanced sensors, advanced networking, and high levels of data fusion," he says.

Air Commodore Harvey says this advanced capability was highlighted, when six Air Force pilots recently visited the US to test drive JSF in high fidelity flight simulators. They used four linked simulators to fly and fight up to sixteen aircraft to develop operational concepts.

"They were impressed. The big advance is the way the JSF fuses all the available data - four people can work very effectively as a single team and they are quite happy as a four-ship flight to take on a 16-ship flight because of their superior situational awareness.

Comfortable that at this stage of development the JSF is likely to meet Defence's capability requirements, the NACC team has already started considering the huge task of transition, to ensure that a comprehensive plan is in place should the Australian Government decide to buy the JSF.

"We're starting to look at the transition issues to the JSF from the F-111 and F/A- 18 - it's one of the biggest challenges we'll have," he says.

New business model

The JSF program has always had two objectives; the first - and to date the most highly publicised - is the capability charter. The second is obtaining a good outcome for Australian industry. It is surprising with the media frenzy surrounding the program that so little has been made of the successful implementation of a new business model that is winning millions of dollars for Australian industry.

In the highly competitive world of winning Defence contracts, teaming together for the common good does not seem like an idea that would naturally occur to participants hell-bent on winning at all costs. So the NACC team had their work cut out for them when they decided to work with Australian industry to set up JSF Team Australia - a new model that, according to Air Commodore Harvey, focuses on a 'whole of Government' and 'whole of industry' approach aimed at working together for a good Australian outcome.

"We're not a big aerospace country, we're a long way from the other players, we're in competition with eight other partners who are also very capable, and we've tended not to work as a team in the past. So the big challenge was to get the team together, go offshore and market our capability, win some initial work, show we can do a good job and then build on that.

There are now more than 100 Australian companies involved and four Australian Government departments including Defence, the Department of Industry, the Department of Finance and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The framework appears to be working very well and the Government's early commitment is paying dividends. So far 18 Australian companies have won contracts valued at over $60 million. Air Commodore Harvey says this will increase during the low rate initial production phase, and then again during the full rate production phase. New opportunities will be available in the sustainment and follow-on development phases.

Defence

Feature

Joint strike Fighter - The Next Generation

New business model