When it comes to the NGAD combat jet contract, Kendall also highlighted
the critical importance of securing key data rights to the design, particularly in regards to software. This is another issue that has created particularly pronounced issues for the F-35 program, especially when it comes to maintenance and other sustainment activities.
When Lockheed Martin won the contract to develop the F-35 it came at a time when the USAF's central contracting concept said that
“when a contractor won a program it owned the program. It was going to do the whole lifecycle of the program. I think, quite frankly, it was a serious mistake. What that basically does is create a perpetual monopoly,” Kendall explained. “I spent years struggling to overcome acquisition malpractice [on the F-35], and we’re still struggling with that to some degree. So we’re not going to do that with NGAD.”
Related to the data rights issue, "we’re also making sure we have modular designs with open systems so that going forward we can bring new suppliers in — [irrespective of] whoever we choose as the platform integrator," Kendall explained.
"
And we’ll have a much tighter degree of government control over the future of that program than we’ve had."
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Secretary
Kendall highlighted problems associated with a process known as concurrency with regard to the development of the F-35... The Pentagon presented this [concurrency] as a cost and time-saving exercise for the Joint Strike Fighter program, but very much the opposite turned out to be the case... Beyond just the three different core variants of the aircraft, F-35s across the U.S. military now exist in a number of different subconfigurations. Some are now cost-prohibitive to upgrade and are unlikely to meet their original service life expectations.
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NGAD does also have the benefit of being able to leverage nearly a decade of previous advanced aircraft design work, started under Kendall himself, at least. Those efforts produced at least one flying demonstrator that has reportedly performed well in testing, which would help reduce risk. The USAF has already been using F-22 and very likely other platforms, to conduct flight testing of various related technologies and systems.
The service is also working in very close cooperation on related development projects with the Navy, which is also pursuing a sixth-generation jet, or F/A-XX, as part of its separate NGAD program.
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We’re not going to do two NGADs. We’re only going to do one". This makes clear that the USAF has abandoned any idea of pursuing multiple designs or iterations even on the same design, [like] the possibility of [two] NGAD combat jets, one optimized for operations in the Pacific region and the other for missions in Europe. Kendall said that the “development phase is far too expensive" to allow for something like that.
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The USAF will also be working to acquire advanced drones with high degrees of autonomy, referred to as Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), in parallel. The USAF's future CCA fleets could include multiple designs [from multiple companies, unlike one design from one main company for the NGAD combat jet].
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/a ... ce-fighter
