Lockheed could “Fail to deliver” F-35 capabilities on time, says Pentagon Tester

Lockheed couldn’t meet one of the requirements in its developing the next-generation F-35 fighter jet, says Michael Gilmore from Pentagon. According to his information, a software shortcomings continue to hamper this unlucky program.

Lockheed, a corporation which promised to deliver for Pentagon F-35, hardly will be able to do it on time. The Pentagon’s director of testing, Michael Gilmore, said in his memo of Aug 9th, that Lockheed’s F-35 fighter jet, possibly, “on a path toward failing to deliver” the jet’s full capabilities in time.

The Pentagon reminds that current deadline for a full cycle of the developing F-35 is 2018, the cost of this government program is more than $1 trillion dollars. The current main problem is software, its testing version “Block 3i” leaves the plane’s front-mounted machine gun unusable.

Michael Gilmore noted in his memo that flight tests were failed, and whole program schedule is “far behind”. In January 2018, Pentagon planned to test F-35 in operational mode.