FAIRFORD, England (Reuters) – The United States has resumed deliveries of F-35 jets with an interim upgrade after months of delays due to software delays and will withhold some payments until remaining upgrades are ready, senior officials said on Saturday.
Lockheed Martin The company (NYSE:) and major suppliers have been updating the planes under a program called Technology Refresh 3 — or TR-3 — that aims to improve displays and processing power.
“We have begun accepting deliveries of the TR-3,” said Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall. “It’s a shortened version… It doesn’t have all the functionality we want, but it’s advanced enough that we can accept delivery now.”
The TR-3 includes improvements in both hardware and software and is seen as a stepping stone to a broader upgrade of the stealth aircraft known as Block 4.
“The hardware seems to be working fine but the software is lagging behind,” Kendall told reporters at the Royal International Airshow in Britain.
“We are now at a point where we can accept the aircraft with the understanding that we will need to add additional software increments to get them to where we need them.”
The decision to resume deliveries without a full software update was made in part to prevent delays to other features, said Andrew Hunter, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics.
“Waiting and waiting and waiting to complete those capabilities that are not quite ready actually hinders progress on some of the later capabilities that we really need,” he added.
Hunter confirmed that the Pentagon will continue to withhold some final payments for each aircraft, but did not specify the amount.
About $7 million of the final payment for each aircraft, which is worth about $100 million each, has been withheld so far.
“Not everything we contracted for has been delivered… and we will not pay for what we did not receive,” Hunter said.
He added that the efforts to complete the TR-3 project helped improve cooperation between companies in the world’s largest defense program.
“We will work hard to ensure that the process of removing those barriers continues until Terminal 4 comes in when we need it,” he said.