WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The US Defense Department is going to hold Lockheed Martin accountable by withholding $5 million each of up to 110 F-35 fighter jets scheduled to be delivered by the end of this year until their hardware and software upgrades are fully functioning, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
The Defense Department’s F-35 program office confirmed the new policy in a statement issued to the news outlet earlier in the day.
Lockheed Martin has informed the Defense Department it plans to deliver 75 to 110 of the super-expensive and repeatedly delayed fifth generation combat aircraft to the US armed forces by December 31.
Lockheed Martin revealed the new policy to the public on Tuesday in a filing it made to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The troubled hardware and software upgrade package is known as TR-3.
Eighteen F-35 jets with the TR-3 upgrade package were delivered to the US armed forces by August 19.
Zdroj sputnik, preložené cez google
