F-35 officials highlight programme achievements in response to critical report

Lockheed Martin has hit back at the findings of a Pentagon report issued to the US Congress criticising continued "immaturity" and uncertainty in the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter by saying the programme is demonstrating greater stability than any legacy aircraft has at a comparative stage of development.

Responding on 14 January to the report issued three days prior by the Pentagon's Undersecretary for Operational Test and Evaluation Michael Gilmore, the company said it is meeting its overall objectives as laid out in the Technical Baseline Review (TBR). This TBR was established in 2010 to help determine the resources in time and money required to complete the system design and development phase of the USD396 billion programme.

"We are now in our third year of executing the plan resulting from the TBR, and we continue to progress and track to this plan. From a developmental test and evaluation [DT&E] perspective, Lockheed Martin believes the programme is demonstrating exceptional stability, certainly significantly greater than any legacy aircraft development programme, which is a primary measure for DT&E."