On a mile-long assembly line in Ft. Worth, Texas, Lockheed Martin is putting together a jet fighter that no one can match. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will be stealthier, smarter, more capable, and more flexible than any aircraft ever built.
It better be. It’s costing American taxpayers close to $1 billion. A month.
“It is a flying computer,” said Steve O’Bryan, vice president of the F-35’s integration and business development at Lockheed Martin. “Where technology goes, where software goes, the F-35 will be flexible with it.”
That’s important for an aircraft which the U.S. military and its allies are counting on to be the backbone of air defenses for the next half-century.
For example, the F-35 currently isn’t configured to control another aircraft, such as an unmanned plane that may fly in formation with it, since no UAV—unmanned aerial vehicle—has yet been created that can keep pace with the F-35. That will probably change over the next quarter century, and, conceivably, the software could be easily added.
“The future would bring you an F-35 operating UAVs,” said O’Bryan.
$1 trillion program
A lot is riding on the Joint Strike Fighter’s success. A hundred jets have been built so far, and they are being tested by the military. The first combat-ready airplane is slated to be delivered next year. Eventually there will be more than 2,400 flying for the U.S. military, with allies buying hundreds more.
However, the non-partisan Government Accountability Office found that issues remain with some of the jet’s software, a problem that could again delay the rollout of an aircraft that has already dealt with an array of problems and seen its original price tag double. Developing, buying, and maintaining the F-35 program over the next half century will cost about $1 trillion, with a “T.”
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