The proposed contract actions will provide for 100 F-35A conventional-takeoff-and-landing jets, 26 F-35B short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing aircraft and six F-35C carrier variant jets in Lot 12.
Lot 13 includes 104 F-35As, 26 F-35Bs and 12 F-35Cs.
Lot 14 provides for 88 F-35As, 30 F-35Bs and 18 F-35Cs, according to a June 16 presolicitation notice posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website. (These three Lots add up to a total of 410 aircraft—Ed.)
"Contract actions will provide for long lead time materials, parts, components, and effort; Ancillary Mission Equipment (AME); Production Non-Recurring (PNR) activities to support the F-35 production ramp rate including tooling, test equipment, production aids, production equipment, and support labor; technical, financial and administrative data; and proposal preparation," the notice reads.
It adds: "Contract actions will also provide for associated sustainment support including spares, support equipment, non-recurring autonomic logistics sustainment activities, training, Autonomic Logistics Information Systems (ALIS) hardware, depot activation, Performance Based Logistics (PBL) operations, and maintenance for all F-35A, F-35B, and F-35C aircraft; and all efforts associated with the procurement of hardware for and sustainment of Joint Reprogramming Enterprise (JRE).
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Given the opposition that the ‘block buy’ has raised in Congress, and to the illegality of any multiyear buy during Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP), it is surprising that this notice has been published at all.
It seems to be a provocation that the program can ill afford at this time, especially after having announced a new delay of about one year in the Operational Test & Evaluation phase.
It also should be noted that, despite the plans outlined above, the program office has still not awarded the main contracts for Lots 9 (now two years overdue, Lot 10 (one year overdue) and Lot 11.)
-ends-
from Defense Aerospace - Press releases http://ift.tt/28KuVsZ
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