Delivered

The Defense Department last week took delivery of the first Joint Strike Fighter production aircraft from Lockheed Martin, the company said in a statement, a milestone that was previously slated to occur last November. Congress authorized funding for the first JSF production aircraft in fiscal year 2007.

“This first aircraft is the beginning of the modernization of U.S. Air Force, Marine and Naval Air power and for our coalition partners around the world,” said Larry Lawson, Lockheed Martin executive vice president and F-35 program general manager. “The F-35 family of aircraft will bring an incredible increase in capability that our men and women defending us deserve. Today we begin to fulfill the vision of our government and international customers.”

The aircraft, AF-7, flew to Edwards Air Force Base, CA, on Friday to begin its flight-testing program, according to Lockheed.

Concerned that production F-35 aircraft were not ready for prime time, the Pentagon last fall directed six additional months of testing for the first Joint Strike Fighters off the assembly line, which pushed pilot testing until late summer of 2011, InsideDefense.com reported last November.

Instead of delivering the first two production aircraft to a training unit at Eglin Air Force Base, FL, at the end of 2010, as previously planned, the Pentagon directed Lockheed Martin to equip the initial Joint Strike Fighters production variants with testing instrumentation and directed them to Edwards Air Force Base, CA, for testing.