Report underscores "lack of maturity" of Lockheed F-35 fighter jet

PanARMENIAN.Net - Lockheed Martin Corp's's new F-35 fighter jet has completed over a third of its planned flight tests, but it still faces problems with the helmet needed to fly the plane, software development and weapons integration, according to a report by the Pentagon's chief weapons tester.

The 18-page report, sent to Congress on Friday, Jan 11 included a detailed account of those issues and others, which it said underscored the "lack of maturity" of the $396 billion weapons program, the Pentagon's most expensive ever.

The program exceeded the number of flight tests and specific system tests planned for 2012 but lagged in some areas due to unresolved problems and newly discovered issues, the report said. It said Lockheed did not accomplish all the tests planned for 2012, but boosted the year's total of specific tests by bringing forward some evaluations planned in later years.

The program has already completed over 20,000 tests, but has 39,579 more such tests.

The report highlighted the continued growing pains of the ambitious Lockheed fighter program, which began in 2001 and has been restructured three times in recent years to slow down production and allow more progress on the development program.

Lockheed said the F-35 program continued to show progress on flight test, software development and other aspects of the reworked plan, and was demonstrating exceptional stability, more than any other legacy aircraft development program, Reuters reported.