9 décembre 2019 | International, Aérospatial

Lockheed Martin contracted for test equipment, special tooling for F-35s

The company received a $153.4 million contract to procure test equipment and special tooling for current and future production of the F-35.

ByChristen McCurdy

Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Lockheed Martin has received a $153.4 million contract to procure test equipment and tooling for the F-35 Lightning II.

The deal covers special tooling and special test equipment "required to meet current and future F-35 Lightning II low-rate initial production as well as full-rate production rates," the Department of Defense said Friday in a news release.

The modification to a previous contract uses aircraft funds from fiscal 2018, 2019 and 2020 and combines purchasing funds of $55.8 million from the Air Force, $51.9 million from the Navy and and $22.2 million from the Marine Corps, as well as $17.6 million from non-U.S. Department of Defense partners and $5.8 million from foreign military sales funds.

The full amount of the contract has been obligated to Lockheed at the time of the award, $39.9 million of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.

Work on the contract will take place at a variety of locations inside and outside the United States, with the bulk of the work taking place in Rome, Italy, and Redondo Beach, Calif.

Work is expected to be completed in December 2023.

https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2019/12/06/Lockheed-Martin-contracted-for-test-equipment-special-tooling-for-F-35s/1831575675959

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Sal Mercogliano, a merchant marine and current professor at Campbell University who closely follows these issues, said the major equipment casualties are the driving factor that is dragging down readiness. “You had 22 out of the 61 ships in either C-5 or C-4 condition,” Mercogliano said. “C-5 means that you can't even leave the dock; C-4 means you can leave the dock but you are not in any condition to sail any real distance. In my ballpark, that's non-mission capable. So right off the bat you lose 22 of the 61 ships. Then of the 33 that they activated, nine of them had issues. Three of them were C-4 level. “So when you add together the ones that had issues with the ones that couldn't be activated, they're saying you can only really count on about 40 percent of the fleet to active when they are aiming for 85 percent.” Ultimately, the degraded status of the sealift fleet means that combatant commanders won't be able to count on its capacity for logistics support, Mercogliano said. “If you are Indo-Pacific Command, or you are Central Command, and you are counting on a certain amount of square footage available to you, that's going to have huge ramifications,” he added. In recent testimony, INDOPACOM Commander Adm. 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