Le Bourget, France—Part of Lockheed Martin’s aggressive strategy to lower the F-35’s unit cost involves the “blueprint for affordability,” said company F-35 Executive Vice President Lorraine Martin on Monday at the Paris Air Show. Rolled out last year, the goal of this government-industry initiative is to help reduce the aircraft’s unit cost by about $10 million by 2019. “We have started to work those projects,” said Martin. Some 178 ideas have come in from across the partner nations and F-35 industrial team; 82 of them are already approved. One idea to utilize “cryogenic machining” is expected to save $4,000 per aircraft—$12 million over the life of the F-35 program—at a total investment of about $119,000, said Martin. This machining uses compressed nitrogen instead of oil-based materials to remove heating from the drilling process without creating byproducts. Another idea involves a partnership with Norway’s Kongsberg Defense Systems to use “die forgings” to improve how titanium blocks are welded into aircraft components now that the F-35’s design is solidified. A $360,000 investment will save some $21,000 per airframe, or some $66 million over the life of the F-35 program, said Martin.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III chaired a China-focused military briefing Oct. 27, part of a biweekly series of briefings with senior military commanders about China’s growing threat in the wake of an orbital hypersonic weapon test that elicited public worries from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. “What we…