The U.S. government auditor has urged the Defense Department to fix software problems associated with the F-35 fighter jet, saying the problems could result in taking the entire F-35 fleet offline.
The Government Accountability Office said in a April 14 report that the Pentagon is aware of risks that could affect the F-25's Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS), but does not have a plan to remedy the problems in a "holistic" manner.
ALIS serves as the information infrastructure for the F-35, transmitting aircraft health and maintenance action information to the appropriate users on a globally-distributed network to technicians worldwide, according to F-35 manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
"ALIS's current design results in all F-35 data produced across the U.S. fleet to be routed to a Central Point of Entry and then to ALIS's main operating unit with no backup system or redundancy. If either of these fail, it could take the entire F-35 fleet offline," the GAO report said.
The Pentagon is "attending to issues on a case-by-case basis" and does not have a plan that "prioritizes ALIS risks to ensure that the most important are expediently addressed," the report said, adding that there is no guarantee the department will address the highest risks by the start of full-rate production in 2019.
But Pentagon officials were quoted by Defense One as saying that the problems are not serious enough to ground the F-35 fleet and made clear that the F-35 program will fly on.
In 2014, South Korea decided to purchase 40 F-35A jets. (Yonhap)
The Government Accountability Office said in a April 14 report that the Pentagon is aware of risks that could affect the F-25's Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS), but does not have a plan to remedy the problems in a "holistic" manner.
ALIS serves as the information infrastructure for the F-35, transmitting aircraft health and maintenance action information to the appropriate users on a globally-distributed network to technicians worldwide, according to F-35 manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
"ALIS's current design results in all F-35 data produced across the U.S. fleet to be routed to a Central Point of Entry and then to ALIS's main operating unit with no backup system or redundancy. If either of these fail, it could take the entire F-35 fleet offline," the GAO report said.
The Pentagon is "attending to issues on a case-by-case basis" and does not have a plan that "prioritizes ALIS risks to ensure that the most important are expediently addressed," the report said, adding that there is no guarantee the department will address the highest risks by the start of full-rate production in 2019.
But Pentagon officials were quoted by Defense One as saying that the problems are not serious enough to ground the F-35 fleet and made clear that the F-35 program will fly on.
In 2014, South Korea decided to purchase 40 F-35A jets. (Yonhap)
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