U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates reiterated his support for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter — along with his opposition to an alternative engine for the aircraft — during a tour of Lockheed Martin’s final-assembly line in Fort Worth, Texas, Aug. 31.

Gates predicted the F-35 at peak production rate will be half the cost of an F-22, adding the program “seems to be on schedule for the first training squadron” in 2011. “Most of the high-risk elements are largely behind us,” he said.

Repeating the Obama administration’s threat to veto the fiscal 2010 defense budget if Congress funds the F136 alternate engine at the expense of the F-35 program, Gates said: “At this point we are trying to count every dollar” and cannot afford the second engine.

Gates’ visit took place against a backdrop of continuing delays in F-35 flight-testing. Aircraft BF-1, the first short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) F-35B, should have returned to flight, but is back on the hover pit. Chief test pilot Jon Beesley said new software is being installed and Lockheed hopes to fly BF-1 late this week.

Reports say there have been several minor problems with BF-1’s integrated power package, which is to be replaced with a newer version already installed and working in BF-2. The plan is to get both BF-1 and BF-2 to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., in September to begin STOVL powered-lift testing.

BF-3, the third STOVL test aircraft, was the backdrop to Gates’ press conference at the Fort Worth factory, and is scheduled to fly in October and ferry to Patuxent River by year’s end, by which time Lockheed expects to have six aircraft in flight-test.

Aircraft AA-1, meanwhile, is due to return to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., for low-speed arrestor-hook testing in advance of the first F-35C carrier variant flying around the end of the year. The A-model’s lightweight hook, designed for only limited land-based use, will be used to gain early experience with arrested landings.

Photo: Lockheed Martin