F35 DELIVERIES ON TRACK

Delivery delays for the Block 3 version of the F-35 Lightning II strike fighter to the U.S. Air Force and Navy will little affect the program's international partners, Pentagon and Lockheed Martin officials say, writes Defense News

Planned deliveries of the F-35B short-takeoff and vertical-landing (STOVL) variant of the jet to the United Kingdom and Italy are on track, for 2013 and 2014 respectively, said Tom Burbage, Lockheed Martin, executive vice president and general manager of F-35 Program Integration.

"Right now, there are no anticipated delays in delivery to any of the international partners," Burbage told reporters during a March 18 telephone call. "Our production schedules are still tracking to plan."

The Pentagon restructured the F-35 program last month to stem delays in the plane's test schedule and allow for the timely delivery of production jets. Official estimates of the plane's flyaway cost have jumped since the program's 2001 launch, from $50 million apiece to between $79 million and $95 million, according to March 11 Senate testimony by Ashton Carter, the Pentagon's top weapons buyer.

In Britain, officials pronounced themselves sanguine about the program.

"Current indications are that the effect on the U.K. is likely to be relatively small and that there is no immediate impact on either the U.K.'s ongoing participation in JSF or our future plans to acquire JSF," a Ministry of Defence statement said.

Quentin Davies, Britain's defence procurement minister, said March 17 that the potential for delays in the delivery of the F-35 to the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy is "being mitigated by a number of measures agreed with Ash Carter and others during discussion in Washington and Fort Worth [Texas] in February."

Moreover, the Ministry of Defence will be "extensively involved" in implementing the restructuring, the MOD statement said.

Britain, which pledged 2 billion pounds ($3 billion) to the fighter's design-and-development phase, originally planned to buy 150 F-35s. That number has officially slipped to a likely 138, but final decisions will wait at least for a government strategic defense review to be launched after the May elections - and possibly slip to 2015, the MOD's chief of defense materiel, Gen. Sir Kevin O'Donoghue, told the Parliamentary defense committee late last year.

In its statement, the MOD said Britain has always planned to buy its F-35s in increments and that the number depends on the program's technical maturity and affordability. Officials declined to give a planned in-service date.

Analysts and industry executives say the MOD will likely order between 70 and 100 jets - perhaps more, depending on how the RAF decides to replace the strike capability currently provided by the Tornado.

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