F35 fails to solve Pentagon software problems

In a report published by the Operational Test and Evaluation Office of the Pentagon, the chief tester Robert Behler makes a critical and at the very least problematic judgment concerning the procedure of evolution and correction of bugs concerning the F35 system, which he both the on-board system and the ALIS system. Indeed, according to him, the developers in charge of these missions are unable to correct and develop the programs without generating, in turn, a large number of malfunctions, this explaining the number of bugs identified in this program has varied little for several years, despite the considerable efforts and credits that he…

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With the F4 standard, the Rafale becomes a new generation digital combat aircraft!

Entering service in the early 2000s, first in the French Navy and then in the Air Force, the Rafale is today the spearhead of the French air force, and it will remain so for several decades. several dozen devices still to be delivered, not to mention the additional orders to come. This longevity, the Rafale will owe it on the one hand to the end of the Cold War, which stopped the usual rate of renewal of combat aircraft, but also and above all to its very design, which allows it to be updated. regularly, incrementally, without major structural modification. Since a year,…

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Lockheed-Martin to Replace F35 ALIS Maintenance System

During the first years of the F35 program, the automated maintenance supervision system ALIS for Autonomic Logistics Information System, was presented as the Holy Grail of military aeronautical maintenance. As is often the case with revolutionary new computer systems, the reality quickly deviated from the initial ambitions. Delays in the delivery of spare parts, poor inventory management, excessive information transmitted to the American manufacturer and observed work overloads quickly deteriorated the image of the software, to the point of now being considered one of the main obstacles to improving aircraft availability. To respond to these criticisms, Lockheed will design a new, more operational system,…

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Quantity and Rusticity again become key elements of future air strategies

A report by the RAND Corporation, commissioned by the US Air Force, identifies two key elements of the effectiveness of strategies aimed at obtaining and maintaining air superiority in the years to come, namely the number of aircraft available, and the return to a certain form of rusticity of these devices. The report examines the relevance of the dispersal of forces strategy, widely used during the Cold War, in the context of a high-intensity conflict against a technologically advanced adversary. Indeed, in the conflicts in which the American air forces participated in the past 30 years, air bases were considered…

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The F35 ALIS System Still Has Many Problems

In the same report which points to the premature aging of the F35B, which can reduce their operational potential to only 2100 flight hours instead of the expected 8000, the malfunctions of the automatic maintenance system of the aircraft, called ALIS, are also widely revealed. Thus, the system would require particularly long mission preparation times, incompatible with operational times. On the other hand, the predictive maintenance and spare parts ordering system is faulty, sometimes displaying restocking times of several years, for example. These malfunctions have led to numerous cancellations or postponements of missions, hampering, according to the report, the operational capabilities of the aircraft. He…

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