F-35生产减速，2019新冠肺炎影响国防工业
对于洛克希德·马丁公司的F-35生产来说，这应该是相对轻松的一年。2017年至2019年的三年间，隐形战机项目年交付量增长了一倍多，2020年以来，增长势头已经减弱。洛克希德公司计划在2020年交付141架F-35，仅比2019年多7架。
This was supposed to be a relatively easy year for Lockheed Martin’s F-35 production. As 2020 began, the stealth fighter program’s three-year growth spurt had subsided after annual deliveries more than doubled between 2017 and 2019. Lockheed planned to deliver 141 F-35s in 2020, only seven more than in 2019.
但F-35供应链并不能免于遭受新冠肺炎大流行造成的全球破坏。在四月召开的第一季度财报电话会议上，有信号显示生产放缓，5月19日洛克希德证实了这种影响。该公司宣布最新预测今年将交付117至124架F-35。如果洛克希德公司在下半年无法复苏，这将是自该计划开始以来，F-35交付量首次出现同比下降。
But the F-35 supply chain is not immune from the global disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. After signaling during a first quarter earnings call in April that a production slowdown was likely, Lockheed confirmed the impact on May 19. The company issued a new forecast of 117-124 F-35 deliveries this year. If Lockheed is unable to recover in the second half, the slowdown would mark the first year-over-year decrease in F-35 deliveries since the program began.
该公司表示：“但是，当我们恢复到新冠肺炎之前的状态时，我们会加快生产速度，而且这个数字可能会下降。”
“However, we will accelerate production when we return to pre-COVID-19 conditions and could see this number decrease,” the company says.
该公司的新财务指南反映了F-35交付总额的降低，该年度净销售额从627.5至642.5亿美元降到622.5至640亿美元。其他大型F-35供应商包括诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司（中段机身、雷达）、雷神技术公司（发动机、分布式孔径系统）和BAE系统公司（后机身、电子战套件）。
The company’s new financial guidance reflects the lower F-35 delivery total, with net sales for the year falling to a range of $62.25-64 billion from $62.75-64.25 billion. Other large F-35 suppliers include Northrop Grumman (center fuselage, radar), Raytheon Technologies (engine, distributed aper-ture system) and BAE Systems (aft fuselage, electronic warfare suite).
目前尚不清楚2020年18至24架F-35的潜在交付短缺会对哪些客户和型号造成影响。
It was not immediately clear which customers and variants would be affected by the potential shortfall of 18-24 F-35 deliveries in 2020.
美国国防部正在密切关注F-35，它的单一最大生产系统。到目前为止，高级采购官员预计新冠病毒对武器系统生产的总体影响是可控的。但是五角大楼领导人认为军用飞机行业是个例外。尽管需求和美国国内军费开支保持不变，但军用航空供应链与不断崩溃的商用飞机市场的联系正在造成延误。
The Defense Department is closely watching the F-35, its single-largest production system. So far, senior acquisition officials expect the overall impact of the novel coronavirus on weapon system production to be manageable. But the Pentagon leadership considers the military aircraft industry an exception. Although demand and domestic U.S. military spending remain intact, the military aviation supply chain’s links to the collapsing commercial aircraft market is causing delays.
美国海军负责研发和采购的助理部长James Geurts说：“我认为[军工]航空对供应商中断的敏感度更高，而这种中断主要是由民用航空市场的剧烈动荡造成的。”“许多航空航天公司都是军工和民用相结合的，由于民用航空刚刚跌入低谷，他们保持开放和留住员工的能力受到了更大的挑战。”
“I think [military] aviation has had a more acute sensitivity to supplier disruptions, largely driven by the massive upheaval in the commercial aviation market,” said James Geurts, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition. “Many of the aerospace companies were blended between military and commercial, and with commercial just falling through the floor, their abilities to stay open and keep their workforce has been a little bit more challenged.”
Geurts关注的另一个领域是命令、控制、通信以及计算机和情报（C4I）市场。他说：“我们正试图追踪所有情况。”“但我们看到的最直接的影响是航空业。”
Another sector Geurts is watching is the market for command, control, communications and computers and intelligence (C4I). “We’re trying to track all of it,” he says. “But the most immediate impact we’ve seen has been on aviation.”
洛克希德公司位于沃思堡的F-35装配线在4月中旬的科维德疫情中遭受重创。员工Claude Daniels在向主管报告自己出现新冠肺炎相关症状后死亡。另一名幸存下来的F-35员工在医院病床上录了一段Facebook直播视频，恳求加入工会的同事们对自己的工作场所进行消毒，即使这不在他们的工作职责范围内。
Lockheed’s F-35 assembly line in Fort Worth was hit hard by the COVID outbreak in mid-April. One employee, Claude Daniels, died after reporting COVID-19-related symptoms to a supervisor. Another F-35 employee, who survived, broadcast a Facebook Live video from his hospital bed, pleading with his unionized co-workers to sanitize their workspaces even if it is not in their job description.
该公司管理层表示，F-35装配线针对新冠肺炎大流行采用了新的制度，其中包括定期对设备进行消毒，并对同事或其他接触病毒的员工进行隔离。
The company’s management has said that the F-35 assembly line adopted new protocols in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which included regularly sanitizing equipment and quarantining employees exposed by co-workers or others to the virus.
对新冠疫情的响应并不是F-35生产系统的唯一压力。洛克希德在2019年以3架飞机超过了总体交付目标，但较不成熟的F-35C机身生产速度放缓，几乎导致公司未能实现年度目标。洛克希德公司将原定于2020年交付的4架F-35调前至2019年底作为补偿，使公司能够以3架飞机超过交付目标，而不是因少交付1架飞机而错失目标。
The COVID-19 response is not the only pressure on the F-35’s production system. Lockheed exceeded the overall delivery target by three aircraft in 2019, but slower production of the less mature F-35C airframe nearly caused the company to miss the annual goal. To compensate, Lockheed moved up deliveries of four F-35As originally scheduled for 2020 to the end of 2019, allowing the company to beat the delivery target by three aircraft instead of missing it by one.
在受新冠病毒影响之前，F-35的全球供应链已经因2017至2019三年的产量增长而紧张。根据政府问责局（GAO）5月的报告，延迟交付的零部件数量从2017年的2,000跃升至2019年的10,000。GAO表示，与此同时，每月零部件短缺量从一年前的875激增至2019年7月的8,000。这些短缺只是每架F-35 30万个零部件中的一小部分，但这一趋势让我们看到了在产能提升期间，供应链在满足需求方面面临的压力。
Before the impact of the virus, the F-35’s global supply chain was already strained by the three-year production ramp-up from 2017 to 2019. Late part deliveries jumped to 10,000 in 2019 from 2,000 in 2017, according to a May report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Monthly parts shortages, meanwhile, leaped to 8,000 in July 2019 from 875 a year before, the GAO says. The shortages represent a fraction of the 300,000 parts in each F-35, but the trend offered a glimpse of the pressure on the supply chain to meet demand during the ramp-up.
这条消息是Steve Trimble在 Aviation Week & Space Technology 发表的文章。《Aviation Week & Space Technology》由人脉最广、经验最丰富的记者团队提供支持，为新趋势、最佳操作实践和政策、要求和预算的持续更新提供关键情报。 点击此处查看有关 Aviation Week & Space Technology 更多消息。