Lockheed May Add Navy F-35 Jet to Limit Delays

Lockheed Martin Corp. may add an aircraft-carrier model to a group of F-35 test planes as the company works to limit delays on the fighter jets to six months or less instead of the two-plus years expected by the Pentagon.

“We could add a 20th jet,” Dan Crowley, the company’s vice president and program manager, said in an interview yesterday in Fort Worth, Texas, where the planes are assembled.

The extra Navy test plane would allow the company and the U.S. military to do “parallel testing with more assets so you don’t extend” the schedule, Crowley said.

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