The United States has taken delivery of 36 upgraded F-35s since the suspension of deliveries was lifted.

The United States has officially taken delivery of 36 new F-35 Joint Strike Fighters manufactured by Lockheed Martin after a one-year delivery freeze was lifted in July. Twenty-nine of them have already arrived at their new bases.

As of July 2023, the Pentagon has refused to accept upgraded F-35s because of issues with the upgraded Technology Refresh 3 hardware and software, which includes new and improved displays, computer memory and processing power. The modifications are also needed for a more extensive package of improvements — known as Block 4 — that will allow the F-35 to carry more weapons, better identify targets and conduct electronic warfare.

These restrictions were lifted after a “shortened” version of the software was developed to enable the delivery of aircraft and their performance of combat training missions.

Lieutenant General Michael Schmidt, the F-35 program executive officer, said Tuesday that the planes were being safely moved out of storage at Lockheed Martin’s facility in Fort Worth, Texas.

The military did not provide an exact number of F-35s that were built and stored during the supply disruption, but it is known that there were dozens of planes.

But with the armies of multiple countries and three U.S. military branches waiting for their long-awaited F-35s, it’s not easy to determine who should get their planes first, Schmidt said at the Air Space Cyber ​​conference hosted by the Air and Space Forces Association outside Washington.

“There could be a long debate about what this order should look like,” Schmidt said.

After such a long delay, following the established contract order may not be the most efficient or effective way to organize deliveries, Schmidt said. So Schmidt gathered officials from the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, as well as international F-35 flying partners, to establish a revised delivery schedule based on training and capability requirements.

However, the new fighters are not yet capable of flying in actual combat. Schmidt said he hopes these F-35s will be combat-capable in 2025, but noted there is “some work to be done” to ensure such issues do not recur.

“We must hold the industry accountable and change the future of the F-35 program,” Schmidt said.

The F-35 program has not invested adequately in labs to develop the plane’s capabilities, he said. Fixing that is a priority.

In February, the F-35 Joint Program Office appointed an independent review team to analyze the F-35 program’s software development status and assess how to expand its capabilities. Earlier this year, the JPO told Lockheed to “begin” investing in software development as part of the reduced software negotiations.

“I really wanted to make it clear to everyone that we need to change the way we do development of the F-35 program and get to the point where we can actually deliver on our promises,” Schmidt said.

The JPO is also withholding payment of about $5 million per aircraft from Lockheed Martin until the TR-3 is qualified and delivered to service with a combat capability.

But the TR-3 delays had a knock-on effect on the F-35 program. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said at a July air show in England that Block 4 upgrades had been “significantly delayed.”

The F-35 program includes a redesign of the Block 4 to ensure it has the right modernization strategy.

Schmidt said some of the approximately 80 capability requirements included in Block 4 are critical to the aircraft but also uniquely challenging.

So the F-35 program is taking a second look at each of the capabilities to reassess what level of technical maturity will be needed, whether the program can deliver them, and how much they will cost, he added.

Schmidt said he hopes to have a Block 4 plan in place by next spring that meets warfighter needs, but program costs and capacity constraints still need to be addressed.

“He’s the best player in the world,” he said. “We have to keep him as the best player in the world.”