By Doug Cameron
The naval version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is due to
start flight tests on an aircraft carrier at sea in October after
Lockheed Martin Corp. said it had fixed the tailhook used to arrest
the plane's landing on a ship's deck.
Lockheed was forced to redesign the tailhook, and said Wednesday
that the naval version of the advanced jet--known as the F-35C--was
"on schedule and progressing well for sea trials" after a test
plane successfully landed 36 times with the new version during
trials on land.
The problems with the tailhook and a pricey new pilot helmet
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had become symbolic of broader issues with the F-35 program as the
complexity of trying to develop three different models
simultaneously with a high level of shared parts led to a cascade
of technical problems and cost overruns.
Lockheed and its partners on the F-35 program are looking to
remove risks from the F-35C in the face an intense lobbying battle
with Boeing Co., which wants the Navy to buy more of its F/A-18
planes, the mainstay of the U.S. Navy's existing carrier-based
aircraft fleet.
The Pentagon plans to order 340 F-35Cs, 240 for the Navy and
another 80 for the Marine Corps. The Navy aims to have its first
squadron of jets ready to fly by early 2019, though a Pentagon
watchdog last month cast doubt on whether the short-takeoff and
landing version of the jet--known as the F-35B--would be ready for
the Marines as planned by mid-2015. The U.S. Air Force is due to
reach so-called "initial operational capability" with its F-35s in
2016.
Michael Gilmore, the Pentagon's director of Operational Test and
Evaluation, said in a report to Congress that it could take an
additional 13 months to finish testing software on the Marines'
jets. The Pentagon said it remains confident the F-35B will be
ready on time.
The Pentagon on Wednesday cautiously welcomed progress on the
carrier version of the jet after the testing of the new tailhook,
which has a different shape to catch the arresting wires used to
slow and halt the plane on landing.
""We're not declaring victory. We have a lot more testing to do
and more data to collect, but the initial results have been
promising," said a spokesman for the F-35 Joint Program Office in
an emailed statement.
The landing system faces another three to four months of land
testing before being cleared for sea trials on the USS Nimitz,
currently scheduled for October.
The Pentagon in October dropped plans for BAE Systems PLC to
continue developing an alternative version of the pilot helmet
after problems developed that included issues with its
effectiveness at night and a latency snag that left pilots with
delayed readings.
The original helmet became a trouble spot for Lockheed and its
main partners in the project, Rockwell Collins Inc. and Elbit
Systems Ltd., but the Pentagon said the problems had been resolved,
while the competition from BAE had also driven down its cost.
Cost overruns, delays and technical glitches have dogged the
F-35 program and made it a target for bipartisan attacks within
Congress, but its funding has remained relatively unscathed. The
U.S. still plans to buy more than 2,400 of the jets, and though
some purchases have been pushed to the right, efforts to continue
the ramp in production to reduce costs have been aided by recent
wins from overseas governments.
Write to Doug Cameron at doug.cameron@wsj.com
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