The world’s largest defence manufacturing firm Lockheed Martin has warned that it will be unable to meet previous targets for production of the F-35 fifth generation fighter in 2023 due to major delays implementing upgrades to the aircraft. Lockheed chief executive Jim Taiclet and chief financial officer Jay Malave reported these projections in a call with investors on April 18, with both software and hardware issues contributing to delays. Upgrades currently in development will reportedly provide the F-35 with better displays, computer memory and processing power as part of efforts to bring the aircraft up to the Block 4 standard. The upgrade is now expected to be ready up to a year behind even recent projections, with the F-35’s program executive officer Lieutenant General Michael Schmidt having informed lawmakers on March 29 that the upgrade would only arrive in December 2023 at the earliest and could be as late as April 2024.
These delays were only among the latest in a long series of developments to draw sharp criticisms from lawmakers.
Poster Comment:
Sounds like Block 4 will be an effort to correct the previous errors that made the F-35 an albatross.
The SU-35 is faster, cheaper and ten times more reliable.