WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Defense has stopped accepting mostdeliveries of F-35 jets from Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) because of adispute over who will cover costs for fixing a production error, threepeople familiar with the matter said.
Lockheed confirmed on Wednesday that the Pentagon had halted deliveries ofthe jet over a contractual issue, but did not give further details.
Last year, the Pentagon stopped accepting F-35s for 30 days afterdiscovering corrosion where panels were fastened to the airframe, an issuethat affected more than 200 of the stealthy jets. Once a fix had beendevised, the deliveries resumed, and Lockheed hit its target aircraftdelivery numbers for 2017.
But deliveries were paused again over a dispute as to who will pay for whatwill likely be a complex logistical fix that could require technicians totravel widely to mend aircraft based around the world, said the people, whospoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speakpublicly about the matter.
When the Pentagon stops taking delivery of F-35s, foreign customers canalso be affected. So far at least two foreign governments have stoppedaccepting F-35s as a result of this issue, two of the sources said.