WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The US Defense Department is going to hold Lockheed Martin accountable by withholding $5 million each of up to 110 F-35 fighter jets scheduled to be delivered by the end of this year until their hardware and software upgrades are fully functioning, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
Lockheed Martin has informed the Defense Department it plans to deliver 75 to 110 of the super-expensive and repeatedly delayed fifth generation combat aircraft to the US armed forces by December 31.
Lockheed Martin revealed the new policy to the public on Tuesday in a filing it made to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The troubled hardware and software upgrade package is known as TR-3.
Eighteen F-35 jets with the TR-3 upgrade package were delivered to the US armed forces by August 19.
