After nearly a year-long pause, the Pentagon will once again accept delivery of new Lockheed Martin F-35 fighters.
The halt on new deliveries began in July 2023, prompted by challenges at Lockheed in certificating a new package of hardware and software for the F-35 known as Technical Refresh 3 (TR-3).
Lockheed had begun producing TR-3-configured F-35s before completing flight certification, which proved far more challenging than expected. The airframer has continued producing jets at its full rate, causing aircraft to pile up outside the Fort Worth, Texas assembly line.
Citing unnamed US defence officials, Bloomberg reports that concerns about damage from severe weather and the need to resume pilot training prompted the Pentagon to start accepting TR-3 jets.
Lockheed confirmed on 11 July the decision to resume deliveries.
“This is an important milestone in our continued development of TR-3 capabilities,” Lockheed says. “We look forward to delivering the first TR-3 F-35s with combat training capabilities soon.”
Lockheed had teased the resumption in recent weeks, saying it was nearing completion of an interim “combat training-capable” configuration that would allow for limited non-combat operations of TR-3-standard F-35s.
This “Release 1” step will enable pilots, maintainers and squadrons to begin preparing to use the updated jet operationally once its full software load gains approval several months later.
The company has been struggling for more than a year to achieve airworthiness certification on the TR-3-configured F-35 design, which began flight-testing in January 2023. Chief executive James Taiclet described the process as being in the “very late innings” more than a year ago during an April 2023 earnings call.
The company has repeatedly pushed back its projection for completing TR-3 certification, with the latest estimate being sometime in the third quarter of 2024.
The transfer of “full combat capability” jets is expected to get under way in 2025.
