The F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter program has reached an important milestone: the delivery of the 1000th jet. The information was confirmed on Tuesday (22) by Lockheed Martin's Director of Operations, Frank A. St. John in an interview with the CNBC television network.
The delivery of the 35th F-XNUMX comes as Lockheed resumes deliveries of the stealth jet, after almost a year of suspension by the Pentagon. Speaking to the Sqawk Box program on Farnborough International Fair, in England, the Lockheed executive reported the achievement of an important milestone for the company.
“I am very proud of our team […] and our industrial partners who led us to this milestone. As I said, we started deliveries last week and now we have delivered the thousandth F-35 and we expect many more”, celebrated St. John.
In August 2023, the United States military stopped receiving new F-35s due to problems with the Technology Refresh 3 (TR-3) update. As explained by St. John, the TR-3 will be the basis for a larger upgrade, the Block 4, which will keep the F-35 a relevant aircraft and capable of facing complex threats beyond the 2030s.
Last week, the t Office of the F-35 program (JPO), a Pentagon entity, resumed receiving the planes, starting the flow of hundreds of F-35s that had been parked at Lockheed's facilities in Fort Worth (Texas) since the year past.
According to Lieutenant General Mike Schmidt, head of the JPO, a phased approach will be adopted to receive the 'new' planes. “The first phase will deliver jets with initial training capabilities in July and August. By the end of August, we will deliver jets with robust combat training capabilities as we continue toward the delivery of full TR-3 combat capabilities in 2025. Our focus has been on providing our customers with stable, capable and sustainable aircraft , and this phased approach does that.”
Although it has only been delivered now, according to Frank St. John's statements, the jet has already been completed by Lockheed since January of this year. Neither the company nor its COO have confirmed the version of the F-35 delivered. However, the portal Defense One points out that two F-35A were delivered to the American Air Force on Friday (19).
Still in January, the model had already recorded more than 990 units delivered and 773 thousand flight hours in the global fleet, in operation with 14 different armed forces and more than 2200 trained pilots.
Despite the problems, demand for the F-35 remains high, especially with dynamic changes in the international security landscape.
