Según el Jerusalem Post, el ministerio de defensa Israelí, ha comunicado a Estados Unidos que solamente comprará el F-35 Lightning II si al menos el 50% de los sistemas de aviónica son de fabricación israelí.
Una de las máximas de Israel es la capacidad de instalar sus propios sistemas tecnológicos en sus fuerzas armadas, pero Estados Unidos ha rechazado el acceso al software del avión, al igual que ha hecho con otras naciones.Por otra parte, según Bloomberg.com, el F-35 solo ha realizado el 10% de los vuelos de prueba previstos en 2009, por los retrasos que lleva el programa.
El programa contempla 5.000 vuelos. El número de aviones a comprar en el periodo 2011-2015 se ha reducido en 122 unidades y mas de 2,8 billones de USD, serán destinados a desarrollo en lugar de a la compra. La fase de desarrollo se va a alargar 1 año, hasta Octubre de 2015. La planta de Lockheed Martin en Bethesda, Maryland, planea construir 2.456 F-35 para la USAF, US Navy y los Marines a un coste estimado de 298 billones USD.
The Jerusalem Post reports that the Israeli Defence Ministry has told the US it will only buy the F-35 Lightning II if at least 50% of its avionics systems are replaced with Israeli-made technology.
Of prime concern is Israel’s ability to install its own electronic-warfare and radar systems, but so far the US has refused to agree to access to the aircraft’s software code, just as it has similarly blocked other partner nations’ requests.
The report says that Israel thinks it will have a “qualitative edge” over other F-35s if it can install its own systems.
On the other hand, according Bloomberg.com, F-35 jet flew only about 10 percent of its planned test flights last year because of delays in delivering aircraft.
Sixteen of 168 planned flights were completed in fiscal 2009, the second year of flight testing, according Pentagon. The program calls for 5,000 sorties to prove the aircraft’s flying capabilities, electronics and software.
The testing backlog is one reason Defense Secretary Robert Gates has delayed the program, cutting planned purchases of the plane by 122 in fiscal years 2011 through 2015. More than $2.8 billion that was budgeted to buy the military’s next-generation fighter would instead be used to continue its development, according to a 2011 budget document.
The development phase must now be extended by at least one year, to October 2015.
The program entered fiscal 2009 at “significant risk” of not meeting its goals, and that risk will increase through 2012 because flight testing hasn’t kept pace “ due to the failure to deliver test aircraft,” Gilmore wrote in the report.
Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed plans to build 2,456 of the fighters in three variants for the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. The current estimated cost is $298 billion.
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