After 17 years of development and a five-year delay, Lockheed Martin, America’s largest defense contractor, has begun series production of the fifth-generation F-35 fighter. Nevertheless, The Warzone assures that the finished F-35s will be parked after leaving the production line due to ongoing delays in deploying the Tech Refresh-3 (TR-3) hardware, known as Block 4, This will offer new advanced features including expanded computing power, new displays, improved cooling and a range of additional weapons.
The Pentagon’s acquisition manager, William LaPlante approved this production increase “after considering the results” of operational testing and evaluation, live fire testing, system development and demonstration exit criteria, and future production strategy. The announcement of this milestone in The F-35 program details that this new stage “requires control of the manufacturing process, acceptable performance and reliability.”and establishing appropriate support and support systems.
The F-35 first flew in 2006. It entered service with the Marines in 2015 (F-35B), the Air Force in 2016 (F-35A), and the Navy (F-35C) in 2019. The first production began in 2004. Thus the Lightning II It took 20 years to reach full production.
The F-35 is expected 156 aircraft are produced per year for the rest of the decade and possibly into the 2030s. This number is still well below the production figures planned in the past, as the US Air Force alone intended to purchase 110 fighters per year.
The Navy, Marine Corps and foreign countries would acquire many more, resulting in production of nearly 250 per year. However, as the Air Force reduced procurement to 80, then to 60, and finally just 48 aircraft per year, production is expected to be no more than 156, even as exports have significantly exceeded expectations, Military reports. WatchMagazine.
Approval for series production of the F-35 was originally scheduled to begin in 2017, but has been repeatedly delayed. In November 2019, the Pentagon’s top weapons tester, Robert Behler, stated that the hunter was far from ready to fight. It was highlighted that all variants of the aircraft had poor reliability and were prone to breakdowns more often than expected.
A key point of discussion among lawmakers and officials in the United States has been the very low availability and high maintenance requirements of stealth aircraft. This left older fighter jets such as the F-15 and F-16 still operational and at significantly higher prices than the new-build F-35s, the aforementioned publication said.
The F-35’s huge operating cost overruns and the aircraft’s technical problems have hurt the profitability of a larger fleet and led the U.S. Air Force to plan significant cuts in new aircraft purchases.
According to the Defense Department, more than 990 F-35s have been delivered to the US Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, as well as allied countries.