Schwartz: Optimism growing on ($243 million dollar) F-35

[unhappycamper]

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said Aug. 4 that a recent string of successes during tests of the F-35A has increased his confidence in the JSF program.


Schwartz: Optimism growing on F-35
By John Reed - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Aug 4, 2010 16:32:32 EDT

Air Force chief Gen. Norton Schwartz is considerably “more optimistic” than he was this spring about the future of the F-35 Lightning II program given the significant progress being made on the plane’s test program.

“I am more confident than I was, to be sure,” about the F-35A — the Joint Strike Fighter version his service will fly — due to a recent string of testing successes with the jet, Schwartz said during a Wednesday meeting with the editorial staff of Defense News and Air Force Times.

The four-star’s confidence in the embattled program has been boosted because the plane is considerably ahead of its flight test schedule for this year. Furthermore, it hasn’t had a single structural failure during stress testing and has not experienced the “software reboot” problems that plagued the F-22 Raptor at a similar phase in its development, said Schwartz.

“I think we flew 46 (test) sorties in June, when 28 were scheduled; another indication that things are beginning to accelerate,” he said.

Most importantly, said Schwartz, price negotiations for the upcoming purchase of 32 low rate initial production jets, known as LRIP-4, “give me some confidence that we’re on a good recovery path.”



unhappycamper comment: I see they are still pushing the myth of a $76 million dollar F-35. :rofl: