Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter resumed flight tests after corrections were made to a software flaw with the jet’s fuel pumps, a company spokesman said.
“The flight suspension has been lifted,” the spokesman, John Kent, said today in an e-mailed statement. “Over the weekend, we loaded the software solution onto the flight test aircraft. This morning we received clearance to fly the two aircraft.”
Test aircraft of all three F-35 variants were grounded Oct. 1 after lab tests revealed a fault in software that controls three fuel-boost pumps, raising concern they could shut down during flight and stall the engine.
Development and combat testing of the F-35 is more than four years behind schedule. Different versions of the jet are designed to be used, with modifications, by the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, instead of each service buying its own planes. The JSF is the most-expensive U.S. weapons program, with costs surging 65 percent since 2002 to $382.4 billion.
The grounding isn’t “a serious setback,” Geoff Morrell, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters. “This is precisely why we have a test program: to try to encounter problems early, fix them, and move on from that.”
Lockheed and the Pentagon announced a Sept. 22 agreement for the fourth batch of early production models valued at more than $5 billion. With that accord, Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed has 63 planes on its books.