Final F-35 Software Twice as Good

Farnborough, UK There are far fewer problems with the objective 3F block of F-35 software, now more than two-thirds through flight testing, than there were in earlier iterations, program director Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan said Monday at a Farnborough Air Show press conference. “The issues we saw early in the 2B and 3i versions” of the software, which allowed the Marine Corps to declare operational capability a year ago and which will equip the Air Force’s first operational jets next month, were “far more substantial than the issues we have with the 3F now.” There is much less software instability, he said, and the software is “twice as good” now, even before testing is complete, “than the 2B version” the Marines are flying with. Even so, the 3F version adds “so much more capability” than the 2B/3i version, he said,. The key now is to make sure all the “sensors and computers are communicating” with “no lags.” He acknowledged, however, that “we have no margin left” in developing the 3F software. “We ate it all up.”