Originally Posted by
cheifofdefence
The just released Pentagon's OT&E report for 2018 suggests that the service life of F35B may be as low as 2100 hrs in addition to highlighting ongoing reliability, cyber vulnerability and ALIS issues.
It might make more sense about the early production faults, repairs and modifications. When read as a whole
"Assessment - For all variants, this testing has led to discoveries requiring repairs and modifications to production designs, some as late as Lot 12 aircraft, and retrofits to fielded aircraft.
- Based on durability testing, the service life of early-production F-35B aircraft is well under the expected service life of 8,000 flight hours, and may be as low as 2,100 flight hours. Fleet F-35B aircraft are expected to start reaching their service life limit in CY26, based on design usage. The JPO will continue to use Individual Aircraft Tracking (IAT) of actual usage to help the Services project changes in timing for required repairs and modifications, and aid in Fleet Life Management.
- For the F-35C, expected service life will be determined from the durability and damage tolerance analysis following tear down."