Software flaws on Marine F-35 won’t bar combat, Pentagon says

Five years after the first F-35s were supposed to be declared combat-ready, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer says the fighter jet’s operating software is ready to go “with some minor workarounds” that need to be remedied later.

“All but eight” of the 243 software capabilities expected for “initial operational capability” are on track to be completed and verified before the Marine Corps announces the milestone for its version of the plane, Frank Kendall, the Defense Department’s undersecretary for acquisition, wrote in a report to Congress obtained by Bloomberg News.

The F-35, made by Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth, is the most expensive U.S. weapons system ever, with a projected price tag of $391.1 billion for 2,443 aircraft. It’s also a flying computer, with more than 8 million lines of software code in each plane.

Shortcomings, previously reported and cited by Kendall, involve software used in the fusion of data gathered from air and ground sensors, electronic warfare, and air-to-air and air-to-ground data links.

Kendall’s previously undisclosed report, dated June 22, said the Pentagon’s F-35 program office plans to resolve the issues during testing of more capable software planned for deployment in late 2017.

“These shortcomings do not interfere” with the Marines’ intended missions, Kendall wrote in the report. The service can meet its declaration date “with requisite weapons and mission systems,” he wrote.

That assessment was questioned by Michael Sullivan of the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, who directs the agency’s annual report on the F-35.

“Some of the capabilities that will be questionable,” such as sensor fusion and electronic warfare, “are key components of the aircraft’s” advantage over current planes, Sullivan said in an email.

“Sensor fusion has an impact on pilot workload, and the report is vague about addressing how difficult it will be for pilots to actually perform those ‘missions sets,’ or how effective the aircraft will actually be,” Sullivan said.

Maj. Paul Greenberg, a Marine spokesman, said most of the issues being tracked “are only considered deficiencies when compared to the F-35B’s full combat capability in 2017.”

A Marine readiness inspection this week is reviewing the progress made by the 10 aircraft in Squadron VMF-121 at Yuma, Ariz.

If the review is completed this week “and we are confident that the aircraft are ready for worldwide deployment,” it will be designated combat-ready, Lt. Gen. Jon Davis, the Marines’ deputy commandant for aviation, said in an email. If it takes until August, he said, “then it will be August. Bottom line is that we won’t rush this; we are doing this the right way.”

This story was originally published July 16, 2015 at 4:02 PM with the headline "Software flaws on Marine F-35 won’t bar combat, Pentagon says."