F-35 - Feil i produksjonen kan gjelde de norske flyene også - Curt Lewis

Pentagon reports another production glitch in Lockheed Martin's F-35

The Pentagon's F-35 program office is weighing how to fix a newly discovered glitch that halted deliveries of the Lockheed Martin fighter jet for 30 days in west Fort Worth.

The problem was linked to a primer that is supposed to be applied as a protective layer on aluminum fasteners to prevent corrosion. The Defense Department temporarily stopped deliveries of the next-generation jet for a month, ending Oct. 20, to assess the issue.

"After a thorough government and industry investigation, it was discovered that Lockheed Martin had not applied the required primer in fastener holes on F-35 substructures during the aircraft production process," Pentagon spokesman Joe DellaVedova said in an email. "This is a production quality escape issue and, though it needs be corrected to prevent potential future corrosion, it does not pose a safety of flight risk to the F-35 fleet or affect current operations."

Discovery of the flaw came after the Pentagon has taken delivery of about 250 F-35s with plans to accelerate production including a block purchase by U.S. allies of as many as 211 jets. The Fort Worth plant, which employs about 14,000 workers, is expected to add about 1,800 workers over the next couple of years. This summer, the company held a series of job fairs in Fort Worth, where more than 2,000 candidates received job offers.


The fastener glitch has been flagged to Pentagon officials preparing Ellen Lord, the undersecretary for acquisition, for a meeting scheduled Nov. 6 with top Lockheed officials, including Chief Executive Officer Marillyn Hewson, according to an official who asked not to be identified.

Lord will be reviewing all major Lockheed programs with company representatives, including the F-35, according to the official. Lockheed spokeswoman Maureen Schumann declined to comment when asked about the meeting.

Upkeep of the F-35 fleet will become more challenging as the Pentagon prepares for what the program's manager has called a "tsunami" of new production. The company expects to produce 2,456 planes for the U.S. military, plus more than 700 planes to be sold to allies.


A painter sprays coatings on a F-35 fighter jet in the finishing area at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Fort Worth.

"We are taking a holistic fleet-wide approach to plan and implement corrective action on aircraft in production and fielded jets, which allowed deliveries to resume," Lockheed spokeswoman Carolyn Nelson said in an email. "We continue to be on track to meet our delivery goal of 66 F-35s by the end of 2017 and have delivered 54 aircraft year-to-date."

The disclosure comes a week after Deputy Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan, Navy Secretary Richard Spencer and Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson visited the Lockheed facility in Fort Worth. It's not known whether they were informed of the glitch.

"The F-35 Joint Program Office is leading the effort with the U.S. services, international allies and Lockheed Martin on a comprehensive engineering assessment and corrective action maintenance plan to implement the necessary repairs" to all deployed aircraft "while minimizing impact to operations," DellaVedova said.

In the interim, "primer will be applied to fastener holes of fielded aircraft as panels are removed during routine F-35 maintenance operations.," he said. "Lockheed Martin has taken action to correct the production line work order error to ensure primer is applied to all fastener holes on future aircraft."