The American military-industrial corporation Lockheed Martin will deliver fewer fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II fighters to customers in 2022 than previously planned, according to a schedule revised to take into account the impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus infection on personnel and production, Bloomberg reports.
In 2022, the company will deliver 151-153 fighters instead of the planned 158-163 aircraft. It is planned to deliver 156 aircraft in 2023. This year, the Pentagon's largest contractor is to deliver 133-139 fighter jets.
According to Teal Group aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia, Lockheed Martin's revised schedule "shows production constraints and supply chain disruptions as a result of the pandemic and possibly other causes." According to him, "these are not the 170-odd [planes] that we [annually] expected in the next few years."
In September, Dmitry Khazanov, a member of the Association of Historians of the Second World War, in a column for TASS I noticed that when creating the nozzle of the lifting and marching engine of the American fifth-generation fighter with a short take-off and vertical landing of the F-35B Lightning II, the idea embodied in the Soviet deck fighter of vertical take-off and landing of the Yak-141 was used.
The F-35 Lightning II is a family of unobtrusive multifunctional fifth-generation fighters, which has been developed and produced by the American company Lockheed Martin since 2001. The fighter is available in three versions: A (conventional for the Air Force), B (with a shortened takeoff and vertical landing) and C (deck).
Ivan Potapov
