Panetta to lift probation on STOVL F-35B

Panetta to lift probation on STOVL F-35B:

Breaking news from Bloomberg:

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will lift a yearlong “probation” imposed on the most complex model
of Lockheed Martin’s Corp’s F-35 fighter jet, according to a U.S. official.
Panetta will announce he is satisfied with the progress of the F-35B during a visit tomorrow to its test facility at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the announcement.
The B model is the most complex version of the fighter and is being watched as a bellwether for the $382 billion F-35 program, the Pentagon’s most costly. The Marine Corps plans to buy about 340 of the aircraft that can take off like a conventional fighter and land like a helicopter.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates decided in January 2011 to put the Marine Corps jet on what was then envisioned to be a two-year “probation” to give Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed more time to demonstrate the fighter’s reliability.

-Bob Cox