The CEO of L3Harris said today the company is making "good progress" on a major F-35 technology refresh effort, following significant delays and cost growth in recent years.
Speaking during the company's third-quarter earnings call today, CEO Chris Kubasik said that while the transition from development to production on TR-3 will lead to lower F-35 revenue in 2021 and 2022, it will drive growth beginning in 2023 as the upgrade is cut into the production line and retrofits begin.
The company's third-quarter earnings show a 3% growth in its space and airborne systems portfolio -- largely due to its missile defense and other "responsive programs" -- which was tempered by the F-35 revenue drop, according to a press release.
TR-3 is a foundational hardware and software upgrade that will enable the F-35 program to integrate future advanced Block 4 capabilities. It centers on four major subsystems: an integrated core processor, a new aircraft memory system, a panoramic cockpit display and electronics units.
Costs for TR-3 have grown by about $444 million since 2019 and the effort is at least seven months behind schedule, but F-35 prime contractor Lockheed Martin has said the early problems -- linked largely to an underestimation of the complexity of L3Harris' integrated core processor design -- have been overcome and the company is confident in the current delivery schedule.
For its part, Kubasik said today that L3Harris just completed safety of flight certification for the aircraft memory system, which has been a major focus for the company. The panoramic cockpit display is entering qualification testing, he said, and the integrated core processor is "making progress."
"Everybody understands the critical path, and as we've always said, the hard part's ahead of us here as the integration testing is going on," he said. "As I've said the last several quarters, the teamwork is much better than I've ever seen."
L3Harris spokeswoman Kristin Jones confirmed the company has completed module subsystem integration and is now focused on TR-3 system-level integration and qualification testing.
Lockheed's TR-3 Director Doug Billings told Inside Defense in July the company expected to begin modifying six jets in the fourth quarter of this year that will be used for TR-3 flight test. The flight-test phase is scheduled to start next year.
The Air Force plans to modify 148 fielded F-35As to at least a TR-3 configuration and another 335 to a TR-3 and Block 4 configuration, for a total of 483 jets, according to its fiscal year 2022 budget request. The total reflects a slight increase from the FY-21 request, which projected the service would retrofit 457 aircraft.