F-35s to get new capabilities with summer software update

AURORA, Colo. — Lockheed Martin hopes to begin rolling out early Block 4 capabilities to the F-35 this summer, a senior company official said Monday.

Chauncey McIntosh, vice president and general manager of Lockheed’s F-35 program, said at the Air and Space Forces Association’s AFA Warfare Symposium here that the company plans to drop an update to the F-35′s Technology Refresh 3 software, which will enable new features.

The TR-3 software update will bring the aircraft type closer to being able to fly in combat, he said.

“Our warfighters are going to see a much higher increase of stability in that software” once the update is in place, McIntosh said.

TR-3 is a series of upgrades to the F-35′s computer memory, processing power, and displays, which are intended to make the jet more capable and pave the way for a subsequent series of more substantial improvements known as Block 4.

McIntosh said in a briefing with reporters Monday that Block 4 will bring the F-35 improved sensors, better sensor fusion, and an expanded array of weapons the fighter can carry.

In an interview with Defense News after the briefing, McIntosh declined to specify which Block 4 upgrades are on their way later this year, saying the details are secret.

“There are some things coming that the warfighter is going to be excited to receive,” he said.

A previous Block 4 capability that was dramatically accelerated in the F-35 was the adoption of the automatic ground collision avoidance system, or auto-GCAS. That life-saving technology automatically pulls a jet up if the pilot is unresponsive and the jet senses it is diving into the ground. Officials began installing the capability in 2019.

TR-3′s rollout was snarled by lingering software and hardware problems that caused the government to refuse deliveries of dozens of new F-35s for about a year. The delivery halt was lifted in July 2024, after Lockheed Martin developed an interim version of the TR-3 software that would allow pilots to fly training missions, and then combat training.

But the jets are still not able to fly in combat, and the government is withholding millions of dollars from Lockheed until the jets are certified to be combat capable. The F-35 Joint Program Office said earlier this year that it hopes the TR-3 jets will be combat capable by the end of 2025, but Lockheed’s chief financial officer said in a January earnings call that it might slip to early 2026.

It remains unclear whether F-35s will reach full combat capability this year. McIntosh said it will be up to the military services and international partners flying the jets to decide whether they are ready for combat. He did not directly answer when asked whether Lockheed will be able to deliver all the elements needed for a combat-ready designation by the end of this year.

Lockheed expects to deliver between 170 and 190 F-35s this year, as it works through the backlog from the TR-3 delays. That would be up from the roughly 110 it delivered in 2024.

McIntosh told reporters Lockheed and the government expect to define the terms of the next F-35 contract, for Lot 18 of the jets, in the second quarter of 2025.

Although that contract has not yet been definitized, he said, the company is keeping the rising costs of the jet under inflation. He highlighted the price of steel as one example of a material that goes into an F-35 that has seen significant inflation in recent years.

When asked how the Trump administration’s 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum might affect the F-35 program, McIntosh said Lockheed is monitoring their economic effects. He declined to speculate on how Lockheed might respond to tariff-driven increases in the supply chain, but said in the past the company has sought to find new ways to get cheaper materials, such as hunting for alternative vendors or adopting different buying techniques.