February 24, 2005 The future of military aviation, the potent Joint Strike Fighter, will be featured at to the Australian International Airshow in March where a full scale and technically detailed replica of this massive and imposing warplane will be on static display for close inspection by military decision makers, aeronautical engineers and the general public to inspect the aircraft. It will be equipped with the latest computerised control and combat systems.

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The JSF has made headlines around the world since it first appeared on the drawing boards of Lockheed Martin in 1996.

Already the United States military has indicated it intends buying 2800 of the hi-tech attack aircraft and many aviation and defence theorists claim that the JSF will be the last manned jet fighter manufactured for the U.S. military and its allies.

This multirole combat leviathan will support a variety of weapons configurations and bristle with an assorted armoury of rockets, missiles and bombs. Many of the technical details are still "under wraps" but it is known the JSF will fly at more than twice the speed of sound and have an operational ceiling of more than 40-thousand feet. The aircraft will also have a number of "stealthy" attributes making it extremely difficult to detect by radar.

Airshows Downunder Chief Executive Ian Honnery says the Joint Strike Fighter program will be a major focus at the Avalon-based Australian International Airshow and will add further weight to the Airshow's promise of delivering "the shape of things to come".

"The JSF is as modern as tomorrow and there's no doubt its combat capabilities will be the centre of attention at the Airshow", he said.

"Visitors will enjoy a unique insight into the leading-edge technology and the potent force of one of the world's most advanced combat aircraft".

The Australian International Airshow will be staged at Avalon Airport in March 2005.

The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) originated in the early 1990s through the restructure and integration of several United States DoD tactical aircraft and technology initiatives already underway. The DoD goal was to use the latest technology in a common family of aircraft to meet the future strike requirements of the Services and US Allies.

In 1993, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency executed a program to develop a supersonic Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) aircraft as a replacement for the AV-8B Harrier. At about the same time, the Department of Defense (DoD) considered canceling the Navy's Advanced Attack/Fighter (A/F-X) that was being studied to fill the void left after the cancellation of the General Dynamics/McDonnell Douglas A-12 Avenger II aircraft being designed for the U.S. Navy.

Senior leadership at the Pentagon suggested a Joint Attack Fighter (JAF) to replace the Navy's A/F-X program. Not only would the JAF be much cheaper than the A/F-X, it would also be designed with a common airframe suitable to the three services. It was believed that such an aircraft would herald significant manufacturing and operational cost savings. Much of the philosophy surrounding the JAF would later be incorporated into JAST, such as its single-engine design and its unprecedented level of commonality.

The Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST) Program was initiated in late 1993 as a result of the DoD Bottom-Up-Review (BUR). The major tactical aviation results of the BUR were to continue the ongoing F-22 and F/A-18E/F programs, cancel the Multi-Role Fighter (MRF) and the A/F-X programs, curtail F-16 and F/A-18C/D procurement and initiate the JAST Program.

The JAST program office was established on 27 January 1994. Its mission was to define and develop aircraft, weapon, and sensor technology that would support the future development of tactical aircraft. The program subsequently moved from a broad, all-encompassing program to one that would develop a common family of aircraft to replace several aging US and UK aircraft.

By the end of 1994, the JAST program had absorbed the DARPA Common Affordable Lightweight Fighter (CALF) program. CALF, then renamed ALF, became the primary focus of JAST. However, JAST was also considering modifying the CTOL versions of the aircraft to perform in a STOVL role. Congress subsequently mandated the merger of JAST with the DARPA Advanced Short Take-Off / Vertical Landing program. As JAST was already considering STOVL variants, this merger was accommodated with comparatively little disruption. The JAST Program initially explored a wide range of potential strike warfare concepts using six-month, Concept Exploration (CE) study contracts awarded in May 1994.

The findings of the CE studies showed that a "tri-service family" of aircraft was the most affordable solution to the collective joint-service needs. The tri-service family would entail a single basic airframe design with three distinct variants: Conventional Take-Off and Landing (CTOL) for the U.S. Air Force to complement the F-22 Raptor and replace the aging F-16 Fighting Falcon and the A-10 Thunderbolt; Short Take-Off/Vertical Landing (STOVL) for the U.S. Marine Corps to replace both the AV-8B Harrier and the F/A-18 C/D Hornet; and a Carrier (CV) variant for the U.S. Navy to complement the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet.

Following numerous trade studies, two critical decisions were made: the JAST family of aircraft would be single-crew and single-engine. Navy attack/fighter aircraft have been preferred to have two engines in case one is lost during flight. The choice of a single-crew aircraft was accepted - subject to continued studies and appropriate technology maturation - on the projection that a single crewmember could perform all of the intended missions.

Boeing, Lockheed Martin, McDonnell Douglas, and Northrop Grumman were each awarded fifteen-month Concept Definition and Design Research (CDDR) contracts in December 1994. Northrop Grumman and McDonnell Douglas/British Aerospace teamed shortly after the CDDR contracts were awarded. The contractors refined their Preferred Weapons System Concept (PWSC) designs and performed a number of risk reduction activities (e.g., wind tunnel tests, powered-model STOVL tests, and engineering analyses).

In the spring of 1995, all three of the contractor teams selected derivatives of the Pratt & Whitney (P&W) F119 engine to power their aircraft. Accordingly, in November 1995, P&W was awarded a contract for preliminary design of each of the primary JSF engine concepts. Concurrently, General Electric was awarded a contract to investigate whether the GE F110 or YF120 could be developed into an alternate engine for one or more of the JSF variants. In 1996, the YF120 was identified as the "best fit" for a tri-service solution and GE initiated preliminary design efforts.

Several Defense Acquisition Board (DAB)-level program reviews were conducted in late 1995. The final Requests for Proposal (RFP) were issued to the contractors in March 1996. By that time the JAST program name had changed to Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).

In May 1996, JSF was designated an Acquisition Category I, DoD acquisition program. In June, the weapon system prime contractors submitted their Concept Demonstration Phase (CDP) proposals. A formal Milestone I Acquisition Decision Memorandum was signed by the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition & Technology) on 15 November 1996, clearing the way for the award of CDP prime contracts to Boeing and Lockheed Martin on 16 November 1996.

Today, the JSF program is nearing the end of the CDP. Once the aircraft have completed their flight test programs and the JSF Program Office has had the opportunity to review the proposals from Boeing and Lockheed Martin, a single contractor will be awarded the Engineering & Manufacturing Development (EMD) contract to begin developing and producing the Joint Strike Fighter for the U.S. and its allies. The U.S. Air Force will be the largest JSF customer, purchasing 1763 CTOL aircraft.

The U.S. Marine Corps is expected to purchase 609 STOVL aircraft, and the U.S. Navy about 480 CV aircraft. The U.K. Royal Air Force and Royal Navy will purchase 150 of the STOVL variant.

With affordability as its cornerstone, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is designed to offer next-generation technologies and capabilities with a price tag comparable to that of current-generation multi-role fighters. Despite its affordable up-front price, the F-35 will deliver the greatest cost savings through long-term ownership.

"The F-35 will require less than half the people, parts and equipment to deploy rapidly anywhere in the world," said Luke Gill, Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] vice president of F-35 JSF Global Sustainment. "The extraordinary range of the F-35 and its small logistics footprint cut airlift requirements in half and significantly reduce the need for aerial-refueling aircraft."

Operation-and-support typically comprises two-thirds of a fighter's ownership costs. The F-35's designed-in efficiencies mean that those expenses will decline dramatically - by an estimated 20 to 30 percent. The F-35 operates with a suite of Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) capabilities that monitor the status of aircraft systems and automatically transmit the information to maintainers on the ground. PHM enables technicians to meet the aircraft with all necessary tools, people and parts to conduct the maintenance and get the plane airborne again quickly.

At the root of the F-35's operation-and-support cost savings is an airplane that sets new standards for reliability and ease of maintenance. Because thousands of F-35s will be deployed worldwide, a Global Sustainment plan is under development that exploits that reliability and streamlines the worldwide supply chain to ensure that each F-35 is always ready when needed.

"F-35 customers are not just buying an airplane. They're also getting our commitment to provide an affordable, multi-mission strike capability for the better part of this century," Gill said.

The F-35 is a next-generation, supersonic, multi-role stealth aircraft designed to replace the AV-8B Harrier, A-10, F-16, F/A-18 Hornet and the United Kingdom's Harrier GR.7 and Sea Harrier. Three F-35 variants - a conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL), a short-takeoff/vertical-landing (STOVL) and a carrier variant (CV) - each derived from a common design will ensure that the F-35 meets the performance needs of the U.S. Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, the U.K. Royal Air Force and Royal Navy, and allied defense forces worldwide, while staying within strict affordability targets.

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., a business area of Lockheed Martin, is a leader in the design, research and development, systems integration, production and support of advanced military aircraft and related technologies. Its customers include the military services of the United States and allied countries throughout the world. Products include the F-16, F/A-22, F-35 JSF, F-117, C-5, C-130, C-130J, P-3, S-3 and U-2. The company produces major components for the F-2 fighter, and is a co-developer of the C-27J tactical transport and T-50 advanced jet trainer.