Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) has agreed to compensate the Department of Defense for parts it provided for the F-35 stealth fighter jet that were not ready to install and is in negotiations over how to pay the reimbursement, the DoD's F-35 program office says.
According to Bloomberg, the parts were considered inadequate for installation not because of safety or manufacturing flaws but because they were delivered without the required inclusion of electronic data, such as a part's history and its remaining useful life, needed by maintenance crews; parts are not supposed to be installed without the data.
Air crews who maintain the F-35 had complained that they have been working extra hours to keep the aircraft flying because so many parts were not ready to be installed.
