New F-35s can fly combat training as DOD holds millions from Lockheed

The latest F-35 Joint Strike Fighters are actually in a position to perform extra elaborate coaching missions, however the authorities is withholding tens of millions of {dollars} in fee to Lockheed Martin till the jets can battle in fight.

Lockheed Martin has upgraded the software program in its newest batch of F-35s to deal with “extra sturdy fight coaching functionality,” the F-35 Joint Program Workplace and Lockheed stated in a joint assertion Thursday. Beforehand, these F-35s may solely perform “preliminary coaching functionality” utilizing a partial model of the upgrades often called Expertise Refresh 3.

The federal government refused to simply accept supply of the brand new TR-3 fighters from Lockheed beginning in July 2023 attributable to software program integration issues and a few {hardware} shortfalls. Lockheed continued to construct F-35s whereas trying to find an answer to the TR-3 drawback and saved them at its Fort Value, Texas, facility.

Lockheed developed a partial model of the TR-3 software program it known as “truncated,” which might permit the jets to fly fundamental coaching missions — however not in fight. The federal government concluded the truncated software program labored properly sufficient to start out accepting the jets and deliveries resumed in July 2024.

TR-3 upgrades embrace higher shows, pc reminiscence and processing energy, that are vital for a extra expansive improve often called Block 4. Along with permitting the F-35 to hold extra weapons, the Block 4 upgrades will permit the jets to higher establish targets and conduct digital warfare.

Prime Air Drive officers and Lockheed Martin final month promised additional enhancements to the F-35 will come.

However the brand new jets will seemingly not be capable of fly into fight till 2025, and that can price Lockheed within the meantime.

The JPO and Lockheed stated Thursday that till TR-3′s fight functionality is certified and delivered, the federal government is withholding about $5 million per jet in funds to Lockheed Martin. These withholdings have been negotiated as a part of the federal government’s settlement with Lockheed to simply accept and ship F-35s with fight coaching functionality.

The latest F-35A fighters, which the U.S. Air Drive flies, price about $82.5 million. New F-35Bs — the short-takeoff and vertical touchdown variants flown by the U.S. Marine Corps — price about $109 million, and the F-35Cs the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps use on plane carriers will price about $102.1 million.

The JPO and Lockheed additionally stated the corporate and its trade companions “are making vital investments in improvement labs and digital infrastructure that profit the F-35 enterprise’s velocity and agility in fielding capabilities to probably the most superior and related fighter jet.”

The yearlong delays in delivering an unspecified variety of F-35s have brought about ripple results all through the Air Drive and the Joint Strike Fighter program.

Gen. James Hecker, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe, stated in July the TR-3 delays had led to a “slowdown” within the variety of F-35s arriving at RAF Lakenheath in England, the house of the service’s two European-based F-35 squadrons. He stated fewer than a dozen jets had been delayed.

“Don’t suppose that the TR-3 issues are over,” Hecker stated on the Royal Worldwide Air Tattoo air present at RAF Fairford in England. “We do have a working software program in TR-3 that’s positively adequate for coaching. … However there’s extra to go.”

Newly delivered TR-3 jets would seemingly be despatched to coaching bases, in response to Hecker. Fight-capable jets flying coaching missions at these bases would then in all probability be transferred to Lakenheath.

And since TR-3 is important to place Block 4 upgrades within the jets, the delays have slowed down the subsequent sequence of F-35 modernizations.

Andrew Hunter, the Air Drive’s acquisition chief, additionally instructed reporters on the RIAT air present that the service was not paying full worth for the unfinished jets.

“We is not going to pay for that which we’ve got not but acquired,” Hunter stated.