At their November, 2024 meeting, the members and guests of the Grampaw Pettibone Squadron were privileged to have a presentation about the development of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) by Rear Admiral Steven “Smiley” Enewold (USN, Ret.) and Captain Scott “Kram” Krambeck (USN, Ret.).
Kram served in the F-35 Program Office as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Air Vehicle Systems Engineering Integration Team (SEIT) Integrated Product Team (IPT) Leader, JSF Operations Director, and as JSF Chief of Staff. He led the JSF Air Vehicle Team from JSF system requirements review through JSF integrated baseline review, and ultimately to the successful completion of JSF preliminary design review.
Smiley served as Program Executive Officer for Air ASW, Assault and Special Mission Programs (PEO-A) from December 2000 until January 2002 when he became the Deputy Program Executive Officer, Joint Strike Fighter. In June 2004, he took over as Program Executive Officer for Joint Strike Fighter program, and in September 2004 was promoted to Rear Admiral Upper Half.
Smiley began his presentation about the early years of the program from 2002-2006 by noting that, the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II aircraft, Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is many programs in one. The F-35 was developed to meet a balanced set of requirements for affordability, lethality, survivability, and supportability. The F-35 program’s development standards included:
- System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase (The program focused on developing a family of strike aircraft that would reduce life-cycle costs.)
- Phased block approach (The program used a phased block approach to address aircraft and weapons integration.)
- Full-rate production (The program achieved full-rate production after demonstrating an acceptable level of performance and reliability.)
- Control of the manufacturing process (The program needed to control the manufacturing process to achieve full-rate production.)
- Establish adequate support systems (The program needed to establish adequate sustainment and support systems to achieve full-rate production.)
Smiley identified in his presentation the F-35 as the world’s most advanced 5th Generation fighter in production. The F-35 is designed to replace aging fighter inventories including U.S. Air Force F-16s and A-10s, U.S. Navy F/A-18s, U.S. Marine Corps AV-8B Harriers and F/A-18s, and U.K. Harrier GR.7s and Sea Harriers. The F-35 with stealth and a host of next-generation technologies, will be far and away the world’s most advanced multi-role fighter.
As a first-time event, the F-35 was developed as a family of three variants. The three variants of the F-35 Lightning II are the F-35A (conventional takeoff and landing, CTOL), the F-35B (short takeoff-vertical landing, STOVL), and the F-35C (carrier variant, CV):
- F-35A: Takes off and lands conventionally. It can carry more weapons and fly further than the F-35B.
- F-35B: Can take off over short distances and perform vertical landings.
- F-35C: Designed to operate off aircraft carriers and is only used by the US Navy and Marine Corps. It has a larger internal fuel capacity, larger wings, and a more robust landing gear than the F-35B.
Smiley stated that multiple models allow lower development cost due to commonality. This could not be realized if, three separate aircraft were designed. A savings of roughly $30 Billion dollars (Assuming $15B for each variant if done separately – and this is very conservative)
Initial plans called for developing two different engines, however, development costs resulted in selection and production of a single engine (Pratt and Whitney F135) which produces 43,000 pounds of thrust, with slight variations within the engine design to accommodate the different takeoff and landing capabilities of each F-35 model.
The aircraft designed in three different configurations will meet mission requirements for three US customers and 8 international customers. International involvement in component development, design and manufacturing represents a new model of international cooperation, ensuring U.S. and Coalition partner security well into the 21st Century.
In addition to the complexity of developing the airframe, Smiley spoke about the development of a whole new way of training and maintaining the JSF. There will be integration of pilot and maintenance training for all services and international customers. An autonomic logistics system, included performance-based contracting for Operations and Maintenance, was also a unique feature of the project. Flight testing took place at three separate locations: Ft Worth, Pax River NAS and Edwards AFB. There were also flight test leaders for the first time.
For the first time in history, the program had international suppliers, providing large parts of a U.S. military aircraft from day one. Another first was that the international partners participated from a “Best Value” rather than “offsets”. This forced them to be competitive, and helped them in future efforts. The project was directed to sustain the JSF globally through the new “Global Sustainment” approach.
Smiley noted that the JSF was to be the first interoperable aircraft used by the U.S. and its Allies. With at least 8 countries flying the same aircraft and all three U.S. services flying aircraft with identical avionics, there would be unprecedented interoperability.
In reviewing the key performance parameters of the three versions as of June 2006, Smiley and Kram shared their analysis. The information presented indicated that each of the models met or exceeded the requirements except for the Interoperability parameter. This is the ability for two different organizations to figure out a way to work together. This applied to individual military forces within a country as well as between participating nations’ military.
One of the challenges discussed by our speakers was the issue of aircraft weight. The F-35 experienced weight issues primarily due to the complex design required to meet the multiple mission features. The wide range of capabilities built into a single aircraft, including advanced stealth technology, extensive avionics, and internal weapons bays, added significant weight to the jet. The added weight exceeded initial projections and impacted fuel capacity, maneuverability, and overall flight characteristics, particularly for the short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) variant. To overcome the weight issue, a number of changes occurred: The use of advanced composite materials, optimizing component design and integrating a systems approach to integrate subsystems more efficiently was implemented. Choosing a lighter weight material without impacting the design integrity was a factor. Operational weights for each aircraft were adjusted during development and production by 2006 to reduce the total weight below the Not to Exceed (NTE) weight limits. The Initial Operational Capability (IOC) for each version was reduced to the following weights: CTOL – 29,086 pounds, STOVL – 32,171 pounds and CV-34,743 pounds respectively. While weight reduction was achieved in the materials selection, design and manufacturing phases, it did result in increased cost and delivery delay. Based on the material selection, design changes and manufacturing processes, the average production cost was around $100M per copy by 2006.
Grampaw Pettibone wishes to thank our speakers for their informative presentation.

L to R: Tim Brown, GPS Commander; David Malmad,PAO; Speakers – Rear Admiral Steven “Smiley” Enewold (USN, Ret.); Captain Scott “Kram” Krambeck (USN, Ret.); Attendee-Mark Dinari, San Diego ANA Squadron Commander; Cindy Macha – GPS Staff