WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin has finished constructing fewer than half of the upgraded F-35 Joint Strike Fighters it promised this yr, as slow production of key parts are holding up multiple latest jets, the Pentagon’s top officer answerable for this system told lawmakers Tuesday.
Lt. Gen. Michael Schmidt, the F-35′s program executive officer, said at a House Armed Services tactical air and land forces subcommittee hearing Lockheed Martin is under contract to deliver 52 jets enabled with improvements often known as Technology Refresh 3 by the top of this yr. The corporate has finished construction on 21 of those.
But production on a handful of key components needed for the TR-3 hardware has ramped up slower than expected, Schmidt said, and the remainder of the most recent jets are still sitting at Lockheed Martin’s factory in Fort Price, Texas, waiting for those parts. Schmidt declined to explain these parts to reporters after the hearing.
“The hardware is nice,” Schmidt told reporters after the hearing. “It’s the speed at which they’re producing them to fulfill our production and retrofit needs. It’s literally a small variety of components, but I want all of the components.”
TR-3 upgrades include hardware and software improvements to the F-35, corresponding to higher displays, computer memory, and processing power. They’re needed for a more expansive upgrade called Block 4, which is able to improve the F-35′s weapons capability, goal recognition, and electronic warfare, amongst other features.
The Pentagon and Lockheed Martin sought to have TR-3 ready by April 2023. That date has now slipped considerably, largely due to persistent software and integration issues. Schmidt said Tuesday TR-3 may be done by mid-spring, though he was not confident in that deadline. The federal government and Lockheed Martin said previously it could possibly be as late as next June.
The federal government just isn’t accepting the newly built F-35s, since the military has not been in a position to perform the test flights needed to be certain they work properly.
Subcommittee chairman Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., said within the hearing that while the F-35 is a “technological marvel,” its repeated delays in fielding capabilities are disturbing.
Schmidt said a part of the issue has been with underperforming labs this system has used to attempt to test TR-3, and that this system is attempting to create more capability in its labs to handle the greater capabilities intended for the F-35.
“Our labs are usually not properly representing the flight environment, and there’s way an excessive amount of discovery happening in flight test,” Schmidt said.
He told reporters Lockheed “is paying a major price” for its inability to fulfill its contractual requirements on the TR-3 jets, though he wouldn’t detail these penalties.
“Lockheed may be very much incentivized to deliver,” he said.
Lockheed Martin didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
The slow component production straight away is simply affecting latest jets, he said, since the F-35 program hasn’t began working on retrofitting older jets.
But when the production issues aren’t ironed out, that may lead to more problems, he said.
“They’ve got somewhat time here to ramp up, but they should do it quickly,” Schmidt said. “It’s not good to get to a certain point within the production line where this part needs to enter that part, and that part’s not there.”
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.