New DOD IG report shows more woe for the F-35 program

Independent experts have predicted program management problems with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter for years.

This September report (136 paged PDF) from the U.S. Department of Defense Inspector General adds to the existing stack of woe. 12 years after contract award and still no credible, working mission systems to show after spending around $60B.

The DOD Joint Program Office, Defence Contract Management Agency and Lockheed Martin have problems. A previous DOD F-35 program manager got fired for far less.

The F-35 Program did not sufficiently implement or flow down technical and quality management system requirements to prevent the fielding of nonconforming hardware and software. This could adversely affect aircraft performance, reliability, maintainability, and ultimately program cost.

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company (Lockheed Martin) and its subcontractors did not follow disciplined AS9100 Quality Management System practices, as evidenced by 363 findings, which contained 719 issues.

The Joint Program Office did not:

Ensure that Lockheed Martin and its subcontractors were applying rigor to design, manufacturing, and quality assurance processes.
Flow down critical safety item requirements.
Ensure that Lockheed Martin flowed down quality assurance and technical requirements to subcontractors.
Establish an effective quality assurance organization.
Ensure that the Defense Contract Management Agency perform adequate quality assurance oversight.

In addition, the Defense Contract Management Agency did not:

Sufficiently perform Government quality assurance oversight of F-35 contractors.