Lockheed Martin still disagrees that the F-35 program will face any new delays, but the jet's biggest customer now adamantly disagrees.
If you believe Lockheed, adding a 14th aircraft -- an F-35C carrier-based variant -- to the flight test program, as proposed in the Fiscal 2011 budget request, allows the program to deliver the first operational squadron of F-35Bs to the US Marine Corps on time before October 1, 2012.
But that's not what Deputy Secretary of Defense Bill Lynn thinks, according to the Australian press. Lynn in is traveling in Australia this week, and meetings with reporters have yielded this remarkable story in The Australian newspaper.
According to the article, Lynn says the program was headed for a 30-month delay before the latest intervention, which resulted in the firing of the government program manager, four fewer production jets and more than $600 million in withheld incentive fee payments to Lockheed. As the flight test program continues to slip behind schedule, the government is proposing to Congress to add an extra developmental aircraft.
The changes bought back 18 months of lost schedule, so now there is only a 12-month delay projected, Lynn tells the Australian press.
Of course, saying the F-35 program faces a 12-month delay is vague enough to be nearly meaningless. Does that mean an across-the-board delay for all three variants, or only one or two of the three? Does it mean a delay for the initial operational capability (IOC) milestones or the completion of the development phase?
Lynn concludes, of course, by saying the program is now on the right track, with a funding and schedule profile that matches reality. I recall hearing the same argument in 2004 when Lockheed revealed a weight problem for the F-35B that cost a two-year delay and doubled the price of the development phase to more than $40 billion.
If you believe Lockheed, adding a 14th aircraft -- an F-35C carrier-based variant -- to the flight test program, as proposed in the Fiscal 2011 budget request, allows the program to deliver the first operational squadron of F-35Bs to the US Marine Corps on time before October 1, 2012.
But that's not what Deputy Secretary of Defense Bill Lynn thinks, according to the Australian press. Lynn in is traveling in Australia this week, and meetings with reporters have yielded this remarkable story in The Australian newspaper.
According to the article, Lynn says the program was headed for a 30-month delay before the latest intervention, which resulted in the firing of the government program manager, four fewer production jets and more than $600 million in withheld incentive fee payments to Lockheed. As the flight test program continues to slip behind schedule, the government is proposing to Congress to add an extra developmental aircraft.
The changes bought back 18 months of lost schedule, so now there is only a 12-month delay projected, Lynn tells the Australian press.
Of course, saying the F-35 program faces a 12-month delay is vague enough to be nearly meaningless. Does that mean an across-the-board delay for all three variants, or only one or two of the three? Does it mean a delay for the initial operational capability (IOC) milestones or the completion of the development phase?
Lynn concludes, of course, by saying the program is now on the right track, with a funding and schedule profile that matches reality. I recall hearing the same argument in 2004 when Lockheed revealed a weight problem for the F-35B that cost a two-year delay and doubled the price of the development phase to more than $40 billion.
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