F-35 to get new software this summer—but there’s no date yet for planned full upgrade

“It's really the customer's assessment of those capabilities and whether or not they approve those for what they call full combat capable delivery,” said Greg Ulmer, head of Lockheed aeronautics. “There are some things that I think we will continue to work on to get to what I would call full combat capable.” 

The new suite, called Technology Refresh-3 is a software and hardware upgrade needed for Block 4 improvements. It was initially slated for completion in April 2023, but software-development problems have delayed the effort multiple times, and Lockheed execs and Pentagon officials haven't set a firm delivery date for the full package.

Lockheed is about “98-percent complete” in delivering the TR-3 capability, but still has work to do on some classified parts of the upgrade, Ulmer told Defense One on the sidelines of the AFA Warfare Symposium here.

Software development has been a thorny issue for the F-35 program, with software instability affecting the jet’s performance. Those problems and delays prompted the Pentagon to suspend acceptance of new F-35s for a year, a hiatus that ended in July. 

Ulmer said that the TR-3 software flying in the fleet now is “very strong” and more stable than the initial TR-2 software. 

As Lockheed finishes developing TR-3 and begins rolling out Block 4 capabilities, the company is “moving out with a lot more resources,” he said. The company is spending $350 million to improve its software lab—part of a deal Lockheed struck with the Pentagon to recover funds withheld for jets delivered without the full TR-3 capability. 

The company is improving collaboration with key subcontractors on the program—Raytheon, Northtrop Grumman, and BAE—by sharing digital-twin models to fix problems before they get the hardware, Ulmer said. 

“The amount of integration work that we're doing, before we ever get the hardware, is multiple times improved from the past experience of the F-35. So we're moving discovery from the left to the right in that experience,” he said. 

As Lockheed works on future upgrades for the jet, the company is waiting to see whether the new administration reduces planned purchases. The Pentagon’s plans to reallocate 8 percent of the next five years’ budgets to fund other initiatives—coupled with criticism of the F-35 by White House adviser Elon Musk—could have serious implications for future orders.

Lockheed’s factories are positioned to build 156 jets per year, and if the total buy is cut, it will affect the price of the jet, Ulmer said: “It’s simple economics.” The company would try to fill any gaps with international orders, but it depends on timing and what kind of variant, he said. 

“We're looking to keep that rate up as high as we can in order to sustain that economic order quantity. So the trade really is, what reduction, what kind of impact would that be to that economic order quantity? And then we'll inform our customer, ‘Hey, if we reduce the quantities by such and such, we'll have an ability to insert some international aircraft depending on those orders and the variant that they order, here's how that plays [out].’ So it's a pretty large equation, but we'll have to do the analysis as the numbers come through,” Ulmer said. 

The future of Europe’s F-35 fleets may be affected by President Donald Trump’s retreat from the continent and European nations’ efforts to beef up their own industrial base and reduce dependence on the United States.

Ulmer said European nations still want the F-35, thanks in part to its interoperability across allied fleets and its capability as an information hub in the sky. 

But if the U.S. continues to pull back from Europe—and alters the amount of information shared with allies—the impact on the F-35 program remains to be seen.

“That's really a government question you have to ask,” Ulmer said.  ]]>