F-35 Fighter Grounded Yet Again

Defense News reported On Wednesday Defense contractor Pratt & Whitney After a setback on a shipment of F-35 engines, the company has decided to suspend its deliveries. Texas runway last month. Video From the December 15 incidents a Lockheed F-35B Lightning II crashing during quality checks and pilot ejecting. 

Last FridayIn the aftermath of that incident, Defense News First reported That Lockheed Martin Had “announced it halted acceptance flights and deliveries of new F-35 Joint Strike Fighters” Because of the ongoing investigation. As A result Lockheed Martin They delivered seven less aircraft than the 148 they were contracted for in 2022. According To that report “A source familiar with the program told Defense News the investigation into the Dec. 15 mishap found that a tube used to transfer high-pressure fuel in the fighter’s F135 engine, made by Pratt & Whitney, had failed.” 

Pratt & Whitney, which is a subsidiary RaytheonEarlier in December received A $115 million contract with the Department This is Defense Tell us about an F135 engine improvement program. Defense News They refused to comment on the crash as an ongoing investigation was underway. 

Problems relating to the F-35’s engines are nothing new. A Government Accountability Office (GAO) Report from April 2022 revealed That Pratt & Whitney Only six of the 152 F-35 engines were delivered on time in 2021. “primarily due to quality issues that required resolution before engines could be accepted by the government.” And Yet, last year was a great year. Congress Continued to finance the F-35 after the Pentagon’s requests. As Nick Cleveland-Stout noted The FY 2020 budget was calculated in RS for the year last. Defense Appropriations Act DoD requested additional funds to purchase 22 F-35s. 

The F-35 aircraft has also been plagued by other major problems. Dan Grazier wrote RS in March This is a non-public 2021 Pentagon’s Director, Operational Test & Evaluation Testing report “showed that engineers are still trying to correct 845 design flaws. Their challenge is compounded by the fact that new problems are discovered almost as fast as the known flaws are fixed.” 

Beyond The F-35 is a high-quality aircraft with consistent quality issues. It is also one of the most expensive. Pentagon progrAms ever. As a letter signed by a transpartisan group of organizations — including the Quincy Institute — last summer exclaimed, “Over the service life of the fleet, the F-35 program is projected to cost the American people $1.7 trillion. This is roughly $5,000 for every man, woman, and child in the nation.” 

In The more than 20 year span since Lockheed Martin won the competition to develop the F-35, more than $62.5 billion has been spent on the program’s research and development, according to Grazier. “Despite all that time and resources, the F-35 remains an underdeveloped aircraft,” He writes, “it will still take years to complete the design during a process program officials have dubbed ‘modernization’ but is really a second chance to finish work that should have been completed during the initial development effort.”

The F-35 was the latest victim of a mishap involving these engines. Joint Program Office To pause deliveries December 27, and to ground several F-35s. It It is not clear at this time how many planes were grounded and how long they will last.