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First round of funding for JSF released

The first round of funding for the Joint Strike Fighter was released April 19, officially putting the $275 billion, multination aircraft program into low-rate production.

Air Force Undersecretary Kenneth Krieg signed off on funds for the first two F-35 Lightning II aircraft and long-lead items for the next 12 planes after approval earlier this month from the Defense Acquisition Board.

The first two planes Maryland-based Lockheed Martin builds with the funds will be conventional takeoff and landing. Of the following 12, half will be CTOL and half will be short takeoff and vertical landing variants.

“Recent reports and ongoing successful flight testing continue to validate that the F-35 already possesses higher levels of technical maturity than any legacy program at a similar point in its development,” said Dan Crowley Lockheed’s F-35 general manager.

Lockheed has already delivered one test aircraft, a COTL plane, and 10 more are in production. The next plane to be delivered will be a STOVL bird, Lockheed officials said.

“I think it is important to note that unlike other legacy programs, the F-35 test jets are being built using virtually the same tooling as the production jets, so by the time we deliver the two LRIP 1 jets we will have already delivered fourteen jets to our test force,” said Air Force Brig. Gen. C.R. Davis, the Pentagon’s F-35 program executive. “So while the LRIP 1 jets do not really constitute a huge leap in production, they signify the start of many deliveries to our war fighting customer.”