Crucial F-35 Combat Test Risks a Delay to 2022, Five Years Late
By Anthony Capaccio
April 14, 2021, 2:00 AM EDT
Jet’s simulator test had been originally scheduled for 2017
$398 billion F-35 has been plagued by delays over two decades
The stealthy F-35 jet may not complete its most critical stage of combat testing until about September 2022, the latest in a series of delays that has set America’s most expensive weapons program back by years, Pentagon officials were told last month.
The rigorous testing in the $398 billion program that was once planned for 2017 was most recently scheduled for December. But the Defense Department’s F-35 program office has now projected the target date for the monthlong simulator testing as August 2022, according to a briefing chart used in a mid-March review.
The delay means lawmakers will likely find themselves authorizing the Pentagon to keep buying the next-generation fighters from Lockheed Martin Corp. in fiscal 2022 and 2023 without having a complete picture of the aircraft’s true capabilities. The Pentagon’s current five-year plan calls for requesting 85 F-35s in the 2022 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, up from 79 this year. That figure rises to 94 in fiscal 2023.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-14/crucial-f-35-combat-test-could-be-delayed-until-late-in-2022
