By BOB COX
rcox@star-telegram.com
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other Pentagon officials have made it clear in recent weeks that they are unhappy about the F-35 joint strike fighter program.
The reasons are likewise clearly evident in the contents of internal government documents reviewed by the Star-Telegram.
Monthly reports prepared by the Defense Contract Management Agency show that as recently as mid-November, development of the F-35 was in serious disarray. Lockheed Martin and other contractors were producing key components and completing airplanes more slowly, not faster, documents show.
The reports are heavily redacted to prevent disclosure of detailed financial information, but indications of major problems leap off the pages. They include:
Nine flight test aircraft, all of which were to have flown by the end of 2009, were behind schedule by 41/2 to 81/2 months when the report was written, in November. Only one of those planes has flown since then.
The next plane expected to fly is now 11 months behind the schedule that was rewritten in early 2008.
"Initial production" aircraft, a number of which were to be delivered and flying this year for training and further testing, are running months behind schedule and falling further behind each month.
On-time deliveries of parts and components by suppliers, which was 88 percent in April, plunged to 71 percent by September. But the blame isn't just with the suppliers. The reports say many of those delays are caused by Lockheed's many design changes.
One subcontractor that has done reasonably well is Northrop Grumman, which builds the center fuselage section of the F-35. Northrop was told to delay fuselage shipments in November and December because Lockheed could not fit them into the assembly line.
Lockheed was "cannibalizing" parts from fuselages being built by Northrop to repair aircraft on the assembly line and in preflight testing.
Lockheed has already spent several hundred million dollars in reserve funds, money rounded up two years ago by cutting out two test airplanes and 1,400 test flights, which the company and program managers agreed would not be needed. The Pentagon now plans to add test planes to speed up testing.
'Back on schedule'
Lockheed officials insist that they are making good progress.
"We have been on the record for quite some time stating that aircraft deliveries are running approximately six months behind schedule and that initial low-rate production aircraft deliveries ... will begin in the fourth quarter of 2010," Lockheed spokesman John Kent said.
"Production trends indicate that we will be back on schedule" by 2011, Kent said.
"Labor hours required to complete each aircraft have dropped by half, and the time required to manufacture an F-35 has dropped by one-third. Parts shortages have gone from 300 on the first aircraft to 16 on the most recent plane rolled out, and the need to borrow parts from other aircraft has greatly diminished. Parts availability continues to improve as the supply chain gears up for higher production rates."
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