With three-quarters of industry funding to improve the affordability of the F-35 already committed to projects, Lockheed Martin estimates the savings will reduce aircraft flyaway cost by $1.7 million from production Lot 10 onwards. Additional funds are expected to save another $1 million per aircraft.
But to achieve the stated goal of reducing the flyaway cost by approximately $10 million by the end of 2019, to $85 million for the conventional F-35A, will require the government customer to begin investing in manufacturing improvements beginning in 2017.
Under the Blueprint for Affordability, industry partners Lockheed, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems agreed to invest $170 million over two years. The initiative assumes the government would provide another $300 million over the following three years to get to an $85 million aircraft.
Another $39 million in projects have been identified, for a total of $209 million, which would take per-aircraft savings to approximately $2.8 million beginning with Lot 11. Lockheed says it is “in ongoing discussions” with the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program office about these additional initiatives, “which could be industry or government investment.”
JSF program executive officer Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan “has talked about continuing the Blueprint For Affordability in the Lot 11 timeframe,” says Jeff Babione, Lockheed’s F-35 program general manager. “We expect him to authorize a similar program.”
Lockheed is under contract for Lot 8 at a price per F-35A of $108 million, including Pratt & Whitney’s F135 engine. A handshake agreement on the next two lots is expected by the end of March, Babione says, with a F-35A price of around $100 million in Lot 9 and below $100 million in Lot 10.
There has been a 57% reduction in cost from Lot 1 to 8, but that is leveling off as budget cuts slow the production ramp-up and the manufacturing learning curve flattens out. Learning curve is a measure of the reduction in time required as technicians become familiar with a task – a curve of 70% means a 30% reduction in manhours with a doubling of production rate.
“Learning curve was the high 60s, now its flattening out in the mid-70s. By Lot 10 and 11 it will be at 80,” Babione says, adding, “It’s an achievement to hold a 70-74% learning curve this far into a program, but now we need to do something different” to keep bringing down cost.
Blueprint projects have already reduced cost by $260,000 per aircraft with Lot 8 now in production, Babione says, and savings are projected to increase to $1.1 million in Lot 9, $1.7 million in Lot 10 and around $2.8 million from Lot 11 onwards once all the industry-funded projects are completed.
Examples of cost reductions provided by Lockheed include:
• Robotic mold-in-place stealth coatings over inlet bumps - $6,000/aircraft for $742,000 invested
• Automated canopy transparency thermoforming - $3,500/aircraft for $666,000 invested
• Closed-volume molding of wing tips and tailplane edges - $10,000/aircraft for $493,000 invested
• Right-sized aluminum bulkhead forgings (F-35A) - $65,000/aircraft for $652,000 invested
•Cryogenic machining to extend tool life - $4,000/aircraft for $119,000 invested
• Laser surface preparation for nut-plate bonding - $15,000/aircraft for $800,000 invested
• Near-net forging for tailhook component (F-35C) - $30,400/aircraft for $298,000 invested
• 3-D printed titanium canopy bowframe – ~$10,000/aircraft for $342,000 invested
• Rudder spar manufacturing improvement – ~$65,000/aircraft for $360,200 invested
• Convert intake chine to machined part – ~$37,000/aircraft for $4.6 million invested