F-35 head warns future upgrades at risk, production shutdown possible
By Stephen Losey
Dec 15, 04:19 PM
WASHINGTON — The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is facing “significant challenges” on its future weapons and other capability upgrades that, if delayed, could lead to a production shutdown, the officer in charge of the program told lawmakers this week.
F-35 program executive officer Lt. Gen. Michael Schmidt said in written testimony to the House Armed Services subcommittee on tactical air and land forces that the upgrade known as Block 4 has had considerable issues related to the maturity of its hardware design, and timelines for integrating its software.
Block 4 upgrades — intended to allow the F-35 to carry more weapons, better recognize targets, and improve its electronic warfare capabilities, among other features — are also facing serious concurrency problems, Schmidt said in written testimony. Concurrency occurs when a system moves through development and into procurement at the same time, which makes it harder to fix problems discovered in testing.
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2023/12/15/f-35-head-warns-future-upgrades-at-risk-production-shutdown-possible/
