F-35 to move into full-rate production later than expected
By: Valerie Insinna  
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon will have to put off moving the F-35 program to full-rate production due to another delay in starting critical simulation tests.
Before the Defense Department’s top weapons buyer, Ellen Lord, can clear the F-35 for full-rate production, the jet must undergo a series of tests in the Joint Simulation Environment, which emulates advanced threats that cannot be replicated in live flight tests.
However, testing in the JSE has been postponed from December 2020 to sometime in 2021, Lord’s spokeswoman Jessica Maxwell said in a statement. News of the schedule delay was first reported by Bloomberg.
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2020/10/26/the-f-35-will-move-into-full-rate-production-even-later-than-expected/
