– Lockheed Running Out Of Parking Space For F-35s Pentagon Refuses To Accept
https://archive.is/1VTLT
Another day, another indication of what a spectacular, snakebit clusterf**k the F-35 program is.
The latest blotter entry comes to us from the US Government Accounting Office (GAO), via a new report pointedly titled “F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: Program Continues to Encounter Production Issues and Modernization Delays.”According to GAO, Lockheed Martin is running out of parking space for all the completed F-35s that the Pentagon refuses to accept.
These aren’t one-by-one rejects. Last summer, the DOD put a complete freeze on accepting the stealth fighters until Lockheed fixed huge hardware and software problems associated with “Technology Refresh-3” (TR-3), a $1.8 billion package intended to expand the planes’ capabilities.
The worst of the software glitches affect the F-35’s radar and electronic warfare systems, “with some test pilots reporting that they had to reboot their entire radar and electronic warfare systems mid-flight to get them back online,” says GAO. Gee, that sounds kinda bad.
As the TR-3 woes continue, the jets are stacking up at Lockheed’s facilities. Referencing a milestone that had already passed when it published its report, GAO wrote, “If TR-3 software is delayed past April 2024, Lockheed Martin is projected to exceed its maximum parking capacity and will need to develop a plan to accommodate more parked planes.” Deflecting concerns, in a statement last week, Lockheed said, “Specific details about parking will not be shared due to security considerations.”
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