The Defense Department has reportedly stopped accepting F-35 jets from Lockheed Martin because of a dispute over who would be responsible for covering the costs to fix a production error found in more than 200 of them.
“Production on the F-35 program continues and we are confident we will meet our delivery target of 91 aircraft for 2018. While all work in our factories remains active, the F-35 Joint Program Office has temporarily suspended accepting aircraft until we reach an agreement on a contractual issue and we expect this to be resolved soon,” a Lockheed spokeswoman told Reuters.
Fixing the jets won’t be simple because it could require technicians to travel to stations around the world, anonymous sources told Reuters.
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It isn’t clear when the suspension began, but the Pentagon allegedly received two jets despite the suspension.
This isn’t the first time technical errors have disrupted the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons program.
The Defense Department stopped accepting the jets for 30 days last year after it found an error with them.
After a fix was engineered, the deliveries continued and Lockheed met its 2017 delivery targets.