Our friends at Politico Defense are reporting the following:
Government and industry engineers are blaming three defense contractors for a "quality discrepancy" that resulted in the grounding of the Marine Corps' F-35B variant earlier this month. The Pentagon's F-35 program office announced yesterday it is "developing a return to flight plan" for the 25 grounded F-35Bs after determining the cause of a mechanical error that occurred Jan. 18 aboard an aircraft prior to takeoff.
"Evidence revealed a quality discrepancy from the company that produces the fueldraulics line," Joe DellaVedova, a spokesman for the F-35's Pentagon program office, said in a statement. "Stratoflex, the company that produces the line, Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney have instituted corrective actions to improve their quality control processes and ensure part integrity."
This, of course, follows the Red Stripe issued by NAVAIR last week that grounded all of the Marine Corps variants of the JSF.
