{"id":27085,"date":"2020-05-19T20:00:24","date_gmt":"2020-05-19T20:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/05\/19\/lockheed-to-slow-f-35-production-as-supply-chain-struggles-to-keep-up\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:21:11","slug":"lockheed-to-slow-f-35-production-as-supply-chain-struggles-to-keep-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/breaking-news\/2020\/05\/19\/lockheed-to-slow-f-35-production-as-supply-chain-struggles-to-keep-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Lockheed slated to miss F-35 delivery target in 2020 as supply chain struggles to keep up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 Lockheed Martin <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2020\/04\/21\/f-35-deliveries-could-slow-down-as-covid-19-jolts-lockheeds-supply-chain\/\" target=_blank>will throttle back the pace of F-35 production<\/a> on May 23, leaving it anywhere from 18 to 24 jets short of the 141 scheduled for delivery this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The COVID-19 pandemic has made it more difficult <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2020\/05\/12\/some-f-35-suppliers-are-having-trouble-delivering-parts-on-schedule-and-turkeys-departure-could-make-that-worse\/\" target=\"_blank\">for Lockheed\u2019s supply chain to make components on time<\/a>, and as a result the company is moving to an adjusted work schedule where production will slow over the next three months, said Greg Ulmer, Lockheed\u2019s vice president for the F-35 program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ultimately, Lockheed aims to accelerate production as soon as possible and hopes to decrease the number of aircraft that will delivered late. However, Ulmer said there are too many variables to say precisely how long buyers will be left waiting for their F-35s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf I have the ability to speed up or recover sooner, then I will do so,\u201d Ulmer said. \u201cIf there are other unknown COVID-19 impacts that I don\u2019t know about that come on the horizon \u2014 I don\u2019t know that either. &#8230; As we go forward, probably late summer or early fall, we\u2019ll have a pretty good sense of where we\u2019re going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/smr\/frozen-pathways\/2020\/05\/12\/how-the-us-air-force-is-assembling-its-northernmost-f-35-squadron-amid-a-pandemic\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/6182882.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">How the US Air Force is assembling its northernmost F-35 squadron amid a pandemic<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">There are strategic benefits to being the U.S. Air Force\u2019s northernmost fighter squadron, starting with access to any location in Europe or the Asia-Pacific region.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beginning on May 23, Lockheed will divide the approximately 2,500 employees who staff the F-35 production line in Fort Worth, Texas, into three groups, moving them to new schedule where each group works for two weeks and then has a week off. After one three-week rotation, the company will determine whether the system is successful and can either alter the schedule or continue until Sept. 4, it said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rotating smaller groups of employees on the line allows Lockheed to move to a slower pace of operations while at the same time ensuring that workers retain their expertise and don\u2019t need to be retrained when the production rate returns to normal, Ulmer said. \u201cIt really maximizes our ability to recover production on the backside and retain our workforce with no loss of learning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lockheed Martin executives first disclosed that F-35 deliveries could be delayed during an April 21 earnings call with investors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere are local distancing requirements that are being more stringently applied across the globe. There is workforce disruption,\u201d Kenneth Possenriede, the company\u2019s chief financial officer, said at the time. \u201cWe\u2019ve actually had some issues with shipping constraints.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most of the supply chain pressure on the program stems from constraints on low-tier suppliers that produce components that feed into larger portions of the F-35. While the production line tries to do as much work on each section as possible, workers are having to slow down and wait for missing parts to arrive, Ulmer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lockheed has also had challenges getting connectors for the jet on time \u2014 another problem that makes it difficult for the company to merge F-35 sub-assemblies into a finished aircraft, Ulmer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Once aircraft are completed and go through acceptance testing, the sequence of deliveries will remain the same, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The slowdown of the F-35\u2019s production rate comes days after President Donald Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2020\/05\/14\/trump-has-questions-about-the-f-35s-supply-chain-here-are-some-answers\/\" target=_blank>voiced support for moving more of the jet\u2019s production to the United States<\/a>. Currently, international partners who helped fund development of the F-35 can compete for work on the jet, reducing the cost of the aircraft and giving foreign buyers an industrial incentive to support the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe problem is if we have a problem with a country, you can\u2019t make the jet. We get parts from all over the place. It\u2019s so crazy. We should make everything in the United States,\u201d Trump said on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, the industrial challenges currently faced by Lockheed do not appear to be caused by the international supply base. Ulmer said European suppliers, who were hardest hit before the United States, are now rebounding from the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI really see Europe kind of [on the] leading edge of the recovery side of this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In particular, northern Italy struggled with high numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases, leading Italian defense firm Leonardo, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2020\/03\/04\/coronavirus-fears-cause-halt-at-japan-italy-f-35-facilities\/\" target=_blank>which runs an F-35 final assembly and check out plant in Cameri<\/a>, to shut down operations <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/coronavirus\/2020\/03\/17\/as-coronavirus-rages-italian-f-35-plant-to-reopen-tomorrow-after-precautionary-cleaning\/\" target=_blank>over a two day period in March<\/a> to clean the facility. With the number of new cases receding, Italy began reopening nonessential businesses this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cLeonardo today is north of 90 percent manned, fully operating. They\u2019re pretty much back to normal operations,\u201d Ulmer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ongoing expulsion of Turkish suppliers from the F-35 program is also unlikely to be affected by the production slowdown at Fort Worth, as Lockheed has already identified companies to take over that work, he said. \u201cWith the vast majority of those, that alternate sourcing has been accomplished. I really don\u2019t see this as an impact to that.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Ramping production back up<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unless COVID-19 cases spike in the coming months, Lockheed believes it will be able to return workers to a normal production schedule in the late summer or early fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What will vary is timing for when suppliers can return to their usual production rates, and whether those suppliers have the capacity to expedite the manufacturing of key parts, Ulmer said. Once the supply chain has fully recovered, it will take the Fort Wort line two to three months to resume full rate production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere are 1,900 suppliers across the program\u201d in the United States, Ulmer said. \u201cSo we take all that information in, we determine what rate they can deliver to, we determine if they have any kind of constraints we can help them deal with, and then we have to balance that into the production system to dial in the production rate we can execute.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI am optimistic that the majority of industry is on the backside. I\u2019m reluctant to say that because there could be a rebound,\u201d Ulmer said, \u201cbut we\u2019re at the very back end of the impact.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lockheed Martin is under contract to deliver 141 F-35 jets this year. Amid COVID-19 restrictions, it&#8217;s unclear whether that will happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":35786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":37,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[7,37,160,11,12,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3384],"class_list":["post-27085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-breaking-news","category-daily-news-roundup","category-global","category-industry","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"J4MLVORLIJHT7I2HB6W67J3UHM","arc_canonical_url":"\/breaking-news\/2020\/05\/19\/lockheed-to-slow-f-35-production-as-supply-chain-struggles-to-keep-up\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lockheed slated to miss F-35 delivery target in 2020 as supply chain struggles to keep up - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Lockheed Martin is under contract to deliver 141 F-35 jets this year. 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