Although they did not meet their expected June delivery date, Eglin Air Force Base’s first two F-35 Joint Strike Fighters have completed their test flights and are in their final review to be accepted by the Department of Defense.Read it all but bet money that the usual suspects will be talking about missed delivery dates etc. All I ask is that either Lockheed Martin or the USAF come out with an explanation of why this is 'taking longer than expected'...are we talking about the monster called bureaucracy creeping into the mix or is it an issue with the airplane.
Representatives from Lockheed Martin, the main contractor building the fifth-generation fighter jet, said last month that the first F-35s were expected to arrive in June. Although Lockheed officials cannot provide a firm date, they now say the AF-8 and AF-9 — Eglin’s first two Joint Strike Fighters — will “arrive shortly.”
“What we’re finding is it’s taking a little bit longer and I’m not going down that path again and putting a month on it,” said Mike Rein, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin. “I will tell you very shortly in the scope of a 10-year program, we will be sending both AF-8 and AF-9 out to Eglin.”
Either way, you've been warned. Expect an Alpha Strike from several blogs that you probably read all covering this subject.
