F-35 head: Delays coming if test planes grounded through September

[nitpicker]

http://www.navytimes.com/article/20140903/NEWS04/309030060/F-35-head-Delays-coming-test-planes-grounded-through-September

F-35 head: Delays coming if test planes grounded through September
Sep. 3, 2014 - 07:31PM
By Aaron Mehta
Staff writer

WASHINGTON — The head of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is warning that there is a real danger of missing deadlines if his test fleet of aircraft are not flying regularly by the end of September.

“I need all of [the test airplanes] back to full envelope by the end of this month,” Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan said at Wednesday’s ComDef conference in Washington. “Otherwise we will start seeing some delays in future milestones.”

However, any retrofit needed to the F135 engine at the root of the restrictions will be borne by contractor Pratt and & Whitney rather than taxpayers.
(snip)

Bogdan told reporters after his speech that the issue did not have anything to do with a recently disclosed supplier issue with Pratt & Whitney.

In May, the engine company discovered what it called “conflicting documentation” about the origin of titanium used in the F-35 engine, supplied from a firm called A&P Alloys. That led to the company to pause deliveries of its F135 engine while it investigated the issue.

(snip)

[unhappycamper]

1. We've already spent almost $300 billion on this POS.

Let me repeat that: We've already spent almost $300 billion on this POS.

We have around a hundred of them parked waiting for ....?

Time to give it up.