F-35 manufacturing problems

F-35s coming out of the Fort Worth, Texas factory aren't ready after their first flight. In a big way. They require many more fixes that take months before getting delivered to the customer, reports Defense-Aerospace.

Once delivered, many of them are schedule to go right into an Air Force or USMC depot to be fixed. This process takes more months and man-hours.

The mistake-jet syndrome. The vendor puts on a good act telling the gullible of manufacturing learning-curve and improvements on the build process.

And after all that, we are still years away from having an aircraft with actual, working, go-to-war-ready, mission systems.

The story reveals several interesting details about the state of the F-35As rolling off the assembly line:

The first aircraft to go through the remedial process is AF-21, the 21st US Air Force F-35A variant. It carries the USAF serial number 10-5009, and according to Lockheed it made its first flight at Fort Worth on Oct. 20, 2012.

The aircraft arrived at Hill AFB on Sept. 20, 2013, 11 months after its first flight. At the time, Lockheed said that “This aircraft will receive a series of structural and systems modifications at Ogden to enhance critical capabilities needed during the Block 2B Operational Testing and Evaluation, or OT&E, program in 2015.”

The remedial work took six months and was completed on March 25, 2014. In other words, since its first flight 18 months ago, this particular aircraft has been grounded for repairs one-third of the time.

More details here at Defense-Aerospace.