Gregory Ulmer on economic impact
From RAeS Webinar: Sopwith Named Lecture 2021 · · Royal Aeronautical Society
“UK companies alone build 15% of value of the more than 3,000 planned F-35s, driving significant export revenue as well as GDP growth for the United Kingdom; the program is projected to create and support more than twenty thousand jobs per year across every region of the UK for decades to come.”
On , Gregory Ulmer, Executive Vice President of Aeronautics at Lockheed Martin Corp, spoke about economic impact during RAeS Webinar: Sopwith Named Lecture 2021 on Royal Aeronautical Society.
About Gregory Ulmer
Gregory Ulmer, Executive Vice President of Aeronautics at Lockheed Martin, has discussed the F-35 program's progress in production, cost reduction, and sustainment. He stated that Lockheed Martin reduced its portion of F-35 sustainment costs per flight hour by 44% over the past five years and aims to lower it another 40% over the next five years, targeting a cost of $25,000 per flight hour by 2025. Ulmer noted that the company signed block buys for lots 12, 13, and 14, achieving an $80 million unit cost for the F-35A model in lot 13, one year earlier than planned, with the lot 14 price below $78 million. He also addressed the transition from the Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS) to the Operational Data Integrated Network (ODIN), describing an 80% reduction in hardware components and successful initial flight tests. Regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, Ulmer said supplier delays impacted production, leading to an alternate work schedule for 12 weeks, with a revised delivery target of 121 aircraft for 2020, down from a pre-pandemic plan of 141. Ulmer has also highlighted the F-35's international partnerships and capabilities. He noted that the United Kingdom, as a Tier One partner, builds 15% of the value of planned F-35s, supporting over 20,000 UK jobs annually. He confirmed that the F-35 was selected in Switzerland's competition, ranking first in three of four categories and quoted about 2 billion francs below the next competitor. On the fastener issue, Ulmer stated that a worst-case engineering analysis assuming every fastener was in the wrong location showed a design limit load of 131%, providing significant margin, and that corrective actions included kitting materials to prevent commingling. He also discussed the F-35's sensor fusion, 360-degree situational awareness, and plans to expand internal weapons bay capacity from two to six air-to-air missiles.