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The F-35’s Delayed Flight

Lockheed Martin’s plane has been plagued by technical glitches and cost overruns. When will it get off the ground?
By Steve Kaskovich |
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The long and rocky development of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter reminds me of the famous words of the cartoon character Pogo: “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

Built in Fort Worth, the F-35 is truly a technological marvel. A stealth aircraft that can reach supersonic speed, it’s designed to be invisible to radar and transmit crucial intelligence to the ground. Futuristic electronics built into the pilot’s helmet can display information on its visor, so our top guns can take aim with a turn of the head. 

But this marvel is also incredibly expensive. Plagued by technical glitches and cost overruns, its price has doubled to more than $100 million apiece, leaving governments around the world reconsidering how many they really need. 

“Its biggest enemy is its own price tag,” says Richard Aboulafia, the respected aviation analyst at The Teal Group in Virginia, confirming my suspicions. 

Lockheed, the world’s largest defense contractor, hopes to sell more than 2,400 F-35s to the U.S. armed services to replace old F-16s, A-10s, and F-18s—and hundreds more overseas. But much has changed since the fighter jet was conceived more than a decade ago. Terrorist networks have emerged as the No. 1 global threat, shifting attention to military needs on the ground, not in the air. Meanwhile, the economic crisis left governments in the U.S. and abroad facing staggering debts and inclined to reduce spending. 

In Washington, the budget standoff and resulting sequestration pact put defense manufacturers on the defensive. Automatic spending cuts have already flattened revenues and forced thousands of layoffs at Lockheed. Speaking to reporters in June, CEO Marillyn Hewson said that although a bipartisan budget deal last year provided relief, sequestration “remains a very real concern for our customers and national security.” 

Both Lockheed and North Texas have high hopes for the F-35. With F-16 production winding down, the F-35 is now the centerpiece of the company’s Fort Worth-based aeronautics division, which generates a third of Lockheed’s business. In the second quarter, when the company’s sales were mostly flat, aeronautics revenue increased by 13 percent, with the F-35 alone accounting for about 18 percent of Lockheed’s sales.More than 13,000 people work at the mile-long “bomber plant,” an economic anchor in North Texas for more than half a century, and 1,000 jobs could be added if production increases. 

The program has been challenged almost from its 2001 start. Lockheed was tasked with designing three versions of the multi-force fighter, including one for the Marines that can take off vertically and hover. Using a process known as concurrency, systems were tested as planes were being built. But myriad technical and mechanical issues, from bulkhead cracks to software delays, required expensive redesigns and repairs, driving up costs and pushing out the production schedule. 

Initially scheduled to enter service in 2011, the plane is still undergoing flight tests. At $400 billion, it’s the nation’s biggest weapons system.  

Early last year, with Pentagon leaders openly complaining, Lockheed shook up its management team in Fort Worth. Steady progress was being made until June, when an engine caught fire in Florida, grounding the U.S. fleet and causing the F-35 to miss a highly-anticipated appearance at the Farnborough International Airshow in England. 

Thus far, nine foreign countries have placed orders for more than 600 F-35s, but future sales hinge on a lower price. Orlando Carvalho, Lockheed’s top executive in Fort Worth, said in June that the company hopes to boost production from 36 planes this year to more than 120 by the end of the decade, and lower the average price to about $80 million. Lockheed and its corporate partners also pledged to invest $170 million in the effort. 

Some customers are checking out alternatives. Italy and the Netherlands have ordered fewer F-35s than initially expected, and Canada delayed a purchase decision. Some countries are opting to upgrade older planes instead. One example is South Korea. It ordered 40 F-35s, but also awarded a $1.3 billion contract to BAE Systems to install new electronics on its fleet of 130 F-16s. 

John Bean, a former Lockheed executive who heads up that BAE business at Fort Worth’s Alliance Airport, thinks more than 1,000 F-16s are candidates for upgrades. With state-of-the-art electronics, upgraded F-16s won’t match the F-35, but they’ll present “a cost-effective way to go,” Bean says.

Carvalho says foreign customers aren’t trimming orders, only spreading them out due to budgetary concerns. The real question is how many F-35s the U.S. will ultimately buy. With budget pressures unlikely to subside any time soon, Lockheed needs to get this plane to the finish line. 

Because although it may evade enemy radar, the F-35 is hardly invisible to the budget hawks.

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