SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
El Reg reports:
Contract wrangle overshadows milestone
The F-35 fighter jet has completed one of its years-long flight testing programmes--just in time for the United States to suspend all deliveries of the new supersonic aircraft.
The final flight of the F-35's System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase took place earlier this week, flown by British BAE Systems test pilot Pete "Wizzer" Wilson. He flew an F-35C (the version designed for conventional aircraft carriers) on a flight intended to check that the aircraft can safely carry 2,000lb bombs and Sidewinder anti-aircraft missiles together.
[...] Finishing SDD means that Block 3F of the aircraft's operating system can now be frozen and rolled out to all worldwide users. That block is not without its own rather fundamental problems, as the US Department of Operational Test and Evaluation has found. Flight tests will continue to validate later versions of the software, such as the still-in-beta Block 4, as well as ironing out bugs discovered during Block 3F testing and deferred to later releases.
However, even as the flight test programme came to a close, the US Department of Defence stopped accepting new jets from manufacturer Lockheed Martin over a contract wrangle. Reuters summarised it in the following terms: "Neither party discovered the issue at the time of production, so each has pointed to the other to fix it."
An American government spokesman said: "This is not a safety of flight issue but rather a contractual resourcing issue that needs to be resolved. The [US] government has implemented this pause to ensure the warfighter receives a quality product from industry."
(Score: 4, Insightful) by fishybell on Saturday April 14 2018, @04:20PM (4 children)
...I mean...
Money Accomplished! Pack up and go home, there's another one on the horizon [nationalinterest.org].
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday April 14 2018, @04:45PM (3 children)
We're not going to all-out war anytime soon. Do you know how long it takes to get a security clearance now? There's a backlog of half a million SECRET clearances and if you hadn't had one in the past 2 years, then it will be around 9 months to over a year before you're even asked to do the face-to-face interview and possibly granted an interim -- and that's assuming you've kept your nose clean but admitted to some drug usage in the distant past.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Saturday April 14 2018, @04:56PM
About 2 years, if you have nothing unusual in your history, according to this page. [glassdoor.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 14 2018, @05:29PM (1 child)
Face to face for a Secret Clearance? Since when? I didn't get a face to face for a TS. The FBI contacted references but no face to face.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday April 14 2018, @05:55PM
Yeah but how long ago was that? I'm talking right now.
If it was recent I'm also guessing you didn't admit to past drug use and lived in the same place your entire life.