After nearly a year-long pause, the Pentagon is once again accepting delivery of new Lockheed Martin F-35 fighters.
The Joint Program Office (JPO) that manages acquisitions of the stealthy jet for all global operators confirmed the resumption on 19 July, noting that the new aircraft are being delivered in the latest Technical Refresh 3 (TR-3) configuration.
“We have initiated a phased approach to the delivery of TR-3 F-35 aircraft,” says US Air Force (USAF) Lieutenant General Mike Schmidt, the JPO’s programme executive officer.
Two aircraft have already been accepted by the JPO: both conventional take-off and landing F-35As. One was delivered to Dannelly Field in Alabama and the other to Nellis AFB near Las Vegas, Nevada. The USAF separately confirms that deliveries are once again underway.
However, the new TR-3 F-35s will be not available for combat duty at least for the time being.
“The first phase will deliver jets with an initial training capability in July and August,” Schmidt notes. “By the end of August, we will be delivering jets with a robust combat training capability, as we continue towards the delivery of full TR-3 combat capabilities in 2025.”
Lockheed has been struggling to achieve airworthiness certification on the TR-3 configuration, which features new avionics and software meant to improve the F-35’s onboard communications and processing power. These enhancements are meant to enable a subsequent set of weapon and sensor upgrades on the forthcoming F-35 Block 4 design.
“TR-3 and Block 4 represent a critical evolution in capability and their full development remains a top priority for us,” says Bridget Lauderdale, Lockheed’s general manager of the F-35 programme.
Issues with TR-3 flight certification led the Pentagon to declare in July 2023 that it would not accept new-production jets until the issues had been resolved. Lockheed meanwhile continued producing aircraft at the full rate of 156 per year, leaving an estimated 100 or more jets in storage outside the company’s Fort Worth, Texas factory.
Lockheed has declined to specify exactly how many F-35s were being temporarily held.
Concerns over liability for any possible damage to those aircraft, combined with the need to maintain the pipeline of pilot training, prompted the Pentagon to begin accepting new TR-3 jets in a modified configuration allowing for limited, non-combat flight operations.
“Our focus has been on providing our customers with aircraft that are stable, capable, and maintainable,” Schmidt says. “This phased approach does that.”
Concern about the delivery pause was also growing among several European customers, including Belgium, Denmark, and the Netherlands, who have committed to donating their current Lockheed F-16s to Ukraine, as they acquire new F-35s.
Lockheed says it plans to deliver between 75 and 110 F-35s in the second half of 2024, primarily in the TR-3 configuration.
