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| Royal Netherlands Air Force F-35A - Cropped - Frank Crebas 2018 Bluelifeaviation.com |
By Anthony Capaccio
February 8, 2019, 4:00 PM GMT+7
- Monthly delivery targets in $406 billion program still missed
- Delays, deficiencies dog program even as allied interest soars
Lockheed Martin Corp. delivered 91 of its F-35 jets in 2018 as promised, but only 54 were “on-time” based on monthly contract targets -- and 19 of those were reclassified from “late” in a settlement of production issues with the Pentagon.
The tardy deliveries mark the fifth consecutive year in which Lockheed’s missed the monthly dates, which are different from annual targets agreed to with the Pentagon’s F-35 program office, according to the Defense Contract Management Agency.
The 91 deliveries were “an encouraging milestone” but Lockheed didn’t meet “all their monthly contracted delivery requirement dates,” Joe DellaVedova, the program office’s spokesman, said in an email. The office has developed a set of incentives for Lockheed “to further implement efficiencies to improve aircraft final assembly,” he said.
He said the change in categorizing the planes “was in no way an attempt by Lockheed Martin or the program office to ‘boost’ deliveries. The modification was part of a contract settlement action on other production-related issues.”
The fighter remains dogged by delivery delays and deficiencies as it heads into increased production. The F-35 entered the crucial one-year phase of intense combat testing required to proceed into full production with 917 unresolved deficiencies, 15 of which are regarded as “must-fix” potential safety or combat capabilities problems.
International Sales
International participation in the $406 billion F-35 program, the world’s costliest weapons system, is also soaring.
More than 360 F-35s have been delivered and are now operating from 16 bases worldwide. The program calls for more than 3,000 jets, of which 2,456 would be for the U.S. Ten nations are flying the F-35, seven countries have F-35s operating from a base on their home soil, and five military services have declared that their planes have an initial combat capability, according to Lockheed, the No. 1 U.S. defense contractor.
Japan stands to be the biggest customer outside the U.S., with a planned 147 jets. South Korea is scheduled to receive its first F-35 this year.
Pentagon officials have repeatedly said Lockheed must improve performance as production ramps up.
Faulty Primer
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, a former executive of Boeing Co., Lockheed’s competitor, told reporters this month that “I am biased toward performance. I am biased toward giving the taxpayer their money’s worth, and the F-35 unequivocally, I can say, has a lot of opportunity for more performance.”
The jets reclassified as having been “on-time” after missing monthly targets fell into two categories. The Defense Department’s acceptance of some F-35s was paused because of faulty application by Lockheed workers of corrosion-prevention primer that had to be corrected. After that there was a dispute over whether Lockheed should pay for the mistake, according to the Pentagon.
Other planes were delayed as the Pentagon completed certification of the latest version of key software known as 3F that Lockheed delivered late in 2017.
The program office “updated contractual delivery dates for 19 aircraft in June 2018 to account for pauses in government acceptance” of those aircraft, Lockheed said in a statement.
Deliveries Ramp Up
The 91 aircraft delivered in 2018 represented “about a 40 percent increase from 2017,” according to Lockheed spokesman Michael Friedman. “We share our annual delivery targets, rather than the individual contractual target dates for each airplane, as exact delivery dates can be impacted by variables such as inclement weather and pilot availability. The majority of aircraft were delivered on or ahead of schedule.”
Friedman said the Bethesda, Maryland-based company is “working across the full F-35 enterprise to improve our on-time deliveries for all aspects of the program.”
Through June, Lockheed was “late to contract requirements” in providing 209 of 308 planes to U.S. and international customers, according to the Defense Contract Management Agency.
Coping With Flaws
The military services have prepared ways to cope with the 917 deficiencies on F-35s during the current testing, officials said. In one example, “operational restrictions” have been placed on F-35 landings on ships at night because of a must-fix “Priority One” deficiency on the pilot’s Helmet Mounted Display -- a dim green back-light that “can decrease the pilot’s ability to detect visual cues,” according to the Pentagon’s testing office.
Overall, “this large amount of unresolved deficiencies will likely have a cumulative effect on F-35 mission capability, the extent of which will be determined” over the next year, Lieutenant Colonel Michelle Baldanza, a spokeswoman for the testing office, said in an email.
DellaVedova of the F-35 program office said “the highest priority deficiencies” have been resolved and “the remaining items have been assessed as having acceptable mitigations to accomplish the mission.”
Source: bloombergcom
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