Lockheed Martin’s [LMT] improved approach to F-35 software development is helping the company save time and money by correcting issues earlier in the process, according to a key executive.
Lockheed Martin Vice President for F-35 Integration and Business Development Stephen O’Bryan said “Lights Out Testing,” where the company runs its software testing labs 24-hours per day, seven days per week, is helping to find quality issues as early as possible so they aren’t found later in the jet, which he said slows down the development process.
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| A view of the F-35A, the Air Force’s conventional variant, from below. Photo: Lockheed Martin. |
“(If) you find it in the coding station, you don’t waste time and slow down testing,” O’Bryan said yesterday at the company’s media day in Arlington, Va. “If you kept finding things, that’s like ‘Wow, you have quality problems,’ right? But if it starts tapering off, that’s a real good indication you found it early.”
O’Bryan said, in addition to a new software development approach, Lockheed Martin also increased investment in its integration and flight testing portions of software development. O’Bryan said Lockheed Martin invested $150 million into a mission systems laboratory complex and hired an additional 200 software engineers. The company also added approximately eight airplanes back into the flight test program for more multi-aircraft testing, according to O’Bryan.
O’Bryan said Lockheed Martin’s biggest challenges going forward with the F-35 are affordability and software and that he’s confident the company is making progress on both fronts. O’Bryan said since Lockheed Martin has already rolled out 81 airplanes, it has a better idea of how to manage costs.
“I think what you’re seeing is greater and greater confidence in the F-35 program,” O’Bryan said. “I don’t think it’s just the United States, but it’s on the technical side (and) it’s on the cost side.”
F-35 Lightning II Joint Program Office Program Executive Officer Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan said in March the Defense Department and Lockheed Martin “radically” changed and improved how it designed, tested and delivered F-35 software increments. Bogdan said the changes helped the company improve software development from a rate of one increment every 30 days to every three days.
Bogdan said in March the increase in software code throughput gave him better confidence that the F-35 program is “at least on the right track” to solving software problems. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a March report it remained concerned that while software management has improved, integration and testing continue to lag behind plans. GAO said “most concerning” is that development of software-intensive mission systems lag with the most challenging work ahead (Defense Daily, March 13).