F-35 Delivery Freeze Complicated By Software Doubts, Hardware Shortages
Steve Trimble December 12, 2023
The head of the Pentagon F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) said on Dec. 12 he still cannot predict when a software issue that has halted new aircraft deliveries from Lockheed Martin since July will be corrected.
The software for Technology Refresh-3 (TR-3), a $1.6 billion cockpit electronics upgrade, was supposed to be delivered before July, but continued delays caused by discoveries of unstable code during flight testing have pushed back the schedule to April-June of 2024. The JPO is refusing to accept new F-35 deliveries until the TR-3 software is fixed.
But the timing of a resolution to the software problem is complicated by the performance of Lockheed’s ground-based software laboratories, Lt. Gen. Michael Schmidt, the F-35 program executive officer, tells the House Armed Services subcommittee on tactical air and land forces.
https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/aircraft-propulsion/f-35-delivery-freeze-complicated-software-doubts-hardware
