WASHINGTON — Problems with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s newest upgrades will cause the aircraft’s manufacturer to miss its 2023 delivery goal by as much as roughly 50 jets, Lockheed Martin officials said Tuesday.
The delays could bring down Lockheed’s revenue for 2023 by lots of of thousands and thousands of dollars.
Lockheed originally planned to deliver between 147 and 153 fighters this 12 months. But software problems with the upgrades often known as Technology Refresh 3, or TR-3, are causing significant delays. The Pentagon announced in June that it will not accept newly built F-35s with TR-3 until the upgrades are completely ready.
Lockheed CEO Jim Taiclet said in an earnings call with investors Tuesday that the corporate now expects to deliver 100 to 120 F-35s this 12 months, given the TR-3 software issues.
Jay Malave, Lockheed’s chief financial officer, said the delivery delays will cost the firm between $210 million and $350 million this 12 months, depending on how soon the corporate can start delivering fighters enabled with TR-3.
Nevertheless, the corporate has not slowed production on the F-35, Malave added, and can store accomplished jets until they’re ready for delivery.
“There won’t be a production lag,” Malave explained. “There’ll be only a delivery lag based on the completion of the software integration testing that must be done within the air.”
Next 12 months, he added, Lockheed will likely find yourself delivering greater than the 156 fighters it previously planned to construct and deliver in 2024.
“Our team stays fully dedicated to delivering the primary TR-3 aircraft in 2023,” Taiclet said. “We have now accomplished 58 flight tests on 4 different aircraft within the TR-3 configuration, including a successful flight test for essentially the most recent software release that happened in May.”
TR-3 is this system’s name for a package of upgrades which can be intended to provide the F-35 higher displays, computer memory and processing power, and is needed before a more extensive modernization often known as Block 4 might be added. Block 4 will allow the F-35 to hold more long-range precision weapons, improved electronic warfare capabilities and higher goal recognition.
The U.S. Air Force in January conducted the primary test flight of a TR-3-enabled F-35.
However the schedule for rolling out TR-3, originally due in April 2023, has slipped. The F-35 Joint Program Office now expects it to reach in December 2023 on the earliest, or perhaps April 2024.
Development and initial production of TR-3′s hardware was originally slow, the F-35 Joint Program Office said, but hardware issues are actually resolved. Lockheed Martin is now constructing F-35s with TR-3 hardware installed.
However the JPO said last month that TR-3′s software, and getting it to work with the fighters’ latest hardware, is proving difficult. Taiclet first said the TR-3 issues would result in fewer deliveries in an April earnings call, but at the moment described the scope of the issue as a “fraction” of the whole 2023 deliveries and said it was expected to have “little to no” effect on the corporate’s aeronautics revenues or profits.
Tuesday’s comments were the corporate’s first that indicate the total scale of the delivery halt’s impact.
The Pentagon remains to be accepting deliveries of TR-2-enabled F-35s. Taiclet said the corporate delivered 50 such F-35s in the primary half of the 12 months.
Malave said the corporate is running extra shifts and sending its experts to other businesses and suppliers to make sure the F-35 program stays on the right track. He also noted Lockheed and the Defense Department have enough pilots to conduct acceptance flights to clear those newly built jets for delivery once they’re ready.
Lockheed expects to get back to delivering 156 F-35s annually in 2025, Taiclet said.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.