Norway has become the latest customer of the Lockheed Martin F-35 to highlight ongoing delivery delays caused by an overrunning software update to the fighter.
Detailing the issue in documents supporting its budget for 2025, Oslo says it is still waiting on 12 aircraft that were due to be handed over in 2023 and 2024 – almost one-quarter of its entire 52-unit acquisition.
It says ongoing delays due to the late roll-out of the Technical Refresh 3 (TR-3) update mean that the dozen jets will not arrive before next year.
“There are still delays in the tests on this configuration and the deliveries are now scheduled to be delivered by the summer of 2025,” the budget documents state. Other F-35 customers including Belgium and Denmark have previously flagged delays to their deliveries caused by the TR-3 issue.
To date, the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RoNAF) has received 40 aircraft, of which six are based in the USA for training purposes.
In addition, integration of the Kongsberg Joint Strike Missile (JSM) has been held up by the TR-3 roll-out delays.
“In the same way that the update to a new technical configuration has affected the deliveries of new aircraft, the change has also delayed the integration of new capabilities.
“For Norway, the delay means that the integration of the JSM on the F-35 combat aircraft will probably not be completed in 2025 as planned.”
Until that integration takes place, the F-35 will not be able to “fulfil all its roles”, the budget document says.
Nonetheless, Kongsberg is “experiencing significant interest in JSM” from other F-35 users, it states: the US Air Force has already signed for an initial batch, and work continues to finalise sales to other operators including Australia and Japan.
Meanwhile, the RNoAF continues to struggle with “lower availability of F-35 combat aircraft than expected”, the document discloses.
To compensate, the air force is making internal changes, and working with an external maintenance organisation to “increase access to technical support for the aircraft”.
“The internal measures are intended to strengthen staffing and optimise processes and working time in order to generate the most available flying time with the available resources,” it says.
Work is also being conducted at a programme level to “improve operational availability”, including optimising maintenance routines and “manufacturer-driven measures to reduce aircraft downtime”.
Norway expects to spend a total of NKr104 billion ($9.6 billion) on its F-35 acquisition, including $564 million in 2025.
