Lockheed F-35B’s reliability found lacking in shipboard testing

The Marine version of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter demonstrated poor reliability in a 12-day exercise at sea, according to the military’s top testing officer.

Six F-35Bs, the most complex version of the aircraft being built in west Fort Worth, were available for flights only half the time needed, Michael Gilmore, the Defense Department’s director of operational testing, said in a memo obtained by Bloomberg News. A Marine Corps spokesman said the readiness rate was more than 65 percent.

While the exercise on the USS Wasp amphibious assault ship resulted in useful training for Marine and Navy personnel, it also documented that “shipboard reliability” and maintenance “were likely to present significant near-term challenges,” Gilmore wrote in the July 22 report.

The assessment, submitted to Frank Kendall, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, said that “Marine maintainers had rapid, ready access to spare parts from shore” and “received significant assistance” from Lockheed personnel and subcontractors.

Even with these advantages, “aircraft reliability was poor enough that it was difficult for the Marines to keep more than two or three of the six embarked jets in a flyable status on any given day,” he wrote.

The challenges to keeping the aircraft flying “will be substantially tougher when the aircraft first deploys” on an operational mission under more trying conditions, he said.

That assessment comes as Gen. Joseph Dunford, the Marine Corps commandant, is poised to decide as soon as this week whether to declare the plane ready for limited combat operations. The Marine version must make short takeoffs from ships and vertical landings like a helicopter.

Maj. Paul Greenberg, a Marine Corps spokesman, offered the estimate of 65 percent reliability and said Gilmore’s “review and assessment was done with our full cooperation.”

“Although some of the report is factually accurate, the Marine Corps does not agree with all of the conclusions and opinions,” Greenberg said in an email. “In some instances, the report contains statements that do not provide proper context or qualifying information, possibly leading readers to form inaccurate conclusions.”

The declaration of “initial operational capability” is five years later than the original date of April 2010 projected when the F-35 program began. Earlier delays resulted from difficulties with the plane’s weight, with its propulsion system and with reliability.

A declaration by Dunford that the plane is ready for limited combat would provide for a 10-aircraft squadron at Yuma, Ariz., to take on some combat missions until software giving the F-35 its full capability is available by late 2017.

Four of those aircraft were on the Wasp. One had “multiple maintenance issues” that kept it from flying for consecutive days from May 19 to May 23, according to Gilmore’s report. The exercise was also hampered by flaws in the aircraft’s fuel systems, which experienced two major component failures, he said.

This story was originally published July 28, 2015 at 4:19 PM with the headline "Lockheed F-35B’s reliability found lacking in shipboard testing."