Lockheed Martin [LMT] is optimistic it has successfully redesigned the tail hook for the carrier version of the F-35 and believes testing can resume later this year, the company’s top executive for the program said yesterday.
Tom Burbage, the vice president and general manager for the Joint Strike Fighter, said company officials met with the Pentagon’s F-35 program office on Wednesday and was told the meeting “went well.”
Lockheed Martin had to rework the tail hook design after it failed to snag the arresting wires during testing at Lakehurst Naval Air Station, N.J. The tests failed because of a problem with the mechanism, or “damper”, responsible for keeping the tail hook down and stable.
Asked whether the redesign has resolved the problem, Burbage said: “We think so.”
Burbage said the company is waiting for the new parts and believes a new round of testing can begin this summer.
Burbage was speaking at a luncheon hosted by the National Aeronautic Association to update the Joint Strike Fighter program. He said the F-35 was on schedule to meet this year’s flights test milestones and test points.
Lockheed Martin said last week the F-35 is scheduled to undergo about 1,000 flights tests this year. The firm said the increased numbers of tests showed the troubled program is rebounding from earlier setbacks.
But that has not deterred the Pentagon from slowing production to give the aircraft more time to mature while saving up to $15 billion. The Pentagon said last month it will reduce the number of F-35 purchases by 13 in fiscal 2013 year and by 179 over the five-year period through fiscal 2017.