Lockheed Martin underpaid $28 million for four upgraded F-35 Lightning II fighters - Pentagon suspended payments due to TR-3 software problems

Last month, the US Department of Defence announced that it had stopped deliveries of fifth-generation F-35 Lightning fighters with Technology Refresh 3 (TR-3) hardware because the software was not ready. Now it has been revealed that Lockheed Martin has been short nearly three tens of millions of dollars because of this.

Here's What We Know

A few weeks ago, we wrote that the US Department of Defence would pay 10% of the cost of each aircraft only after Lockheed Martin resolved the software issue. The company plans to produce nine aircraft each month until the end of 2023.

The new F-35 TR-3 fighters will be sent to storage. It is already known that the US Department of Defence has postponed payments for the first four fifth-generation fighter jets. The total amount was $28 million, i.e. $7 million from each aircraft.

The TR-3 upgrade will increase the F-35's processing power 37 times and memory 20 times over the fighter's current capabilities. The F-35 programme office has already said it will work with Lockheed Martin to securely store the aircraft until everything is resolved. This was said by the head of the office Russell Goemaere.

Source: Bloomberg