Pentagon confirms 1-year delay for JSF

[unhappycamper]

Delay’s effect on delivery unknown
Corps is set to get its first F-35s in 2012



Pentagon confirms 1-year delay for JSF
By John Reed - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Feb 17, 2010 5:57:11 EST

Pentagon officials on Feb. 16 confirmed Deputy Defense Secretary Bill Lynn’s announcement one day prior that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program will be delayed by about one year.

The Pentagon’s No. 2 official said this week that the jet’s development schedule would slip between 12 months and 13 months despite an aggressive restructuring of the program that was announced earlier this month.

“The development was originally projected to last an additional 30 months; we think with the additional test aircraft it will be closer to a delay of about 12 or 13 months, but I can’t give you the cost numbers,” The Australian newspaper quoted Lynn as saying during a speech at a shipyard in South Australia. He did not say if this would affect the delivery timeline for the JSF.

The delay is a result of the integration of additional test aircraft that were mandated under the restructuring, which also extended system development and design until 2015, according to a Pentagon official.

“That is a true statement, the driver on this is the test aircraft,” the official said Feb. 16. “The driver on this whole thing, about a year, is due to the additional test aircraft.”


Rest of article about this $239 million dollar POS at: http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2010/02/military_f35_delay_021610w/