Tom Temin: In thinking about the F-35, to some people it looks like the most capable aircraft ever developed, fifth generation. To others, it’s an endlessly expensive thing with lots of defects that still come up. What is it exactly, at this point in history?

Chauncey McIntosh: So when you think about the F-35, first off, let’s talk about it is a combat-proven capability. This is an airplane that has demonstrated its value and its worth in some of the most pressing situations in theater, and it is safely brought home the pilots back to their families each and every time and each of those engagements. So something that we as Americans should all be very proud of that this American innovation that is really taken hold across our NATO alliance and the fact that we can deliver such an amazing capability to go into combat situations and then bring home are powered safely. So that’s first and foremost I think that we should talk about when we talk about the F-35. I think the second thing we should also understand is that the F-35 is built to continue to evolve. It is an awesome airplane that was built from the get-go knowing that the world is a changing world, it’s a dynamic world, and it’s built for that evolution to bring on new capabilities constantly to ensure that we are able to stay above the threat and stay ahead that threat to ensure that we always can generate air dominance for not only the U.S. services, but that of our allies that are behind this plane. And then thirdly, I think what I would mention is, the cost per effect that this plane provides is just great value for money. When you look at what this airplane does, when you look at the capabilities that it provides, and if you look that on a cost per fact and compared to anything else, it is by far providing great value.

Tom Temin: And give us just a status report. How many copies are in service, how many are ordered for the next tranche. I mean, give us some of the numbers here for the program.

Chauncey McIntosh: So, Tom, the way I would look at this. First off, let’s just talk about the program. So this is a program that our US services, all three that are buying this airplane. It’s a program that has now accumulated 20 particular services, nations that have this airplane as part of its fleet. And when you look at that, and as we continue to add additional countries to this program, it’s also a great export of goods that we’re providing. And with that, we’ve delivered over 1,150 of these airplanes, that have been delivered not only to the US services, but to that NATO alliance and our allies there. So really, it’s a great program of not only providing air power within the US, but also demonstrating how we’re making the rest of the free world stronger amongst those 20 countries and counting that are buying this airplane.

Tom Temin: And the Pentagon’s Joint Program Office recently reported that the defect rates are going down and readiness is rising. What is the optimal state and how far are we from that, do you think?

Chauncey McIntosh: So when we talk about this program and the fact that its capabilities are proven, I think that’s really the baseline. When you look at the F-35 understanding that we jointly in partnership with the US Government have really focused on delivering a war fight capability that we’re proud to put our men and women into that airplane that go out into harm’s way and come home safely. And the fact that it’s doing a great job. If you look today and you look a current theater, current operations, you know, last year, November, and reports you can read as publicly available, where our US Marine Corps went into attack and to the fight against the Houthis into Yemen and came out just tremendous results of that operation and why they would come home. If you look at the last couple of weeks, media reports are very public about what our US Navy is doing out in the Red Sea. Again, going after protecting the Red sea from drones that have been sent to cause harm and damage, but also going into Yemen and looking at the air defense systems. And a lot of articles, if you read out there about what those air defense system are doing from a resilience for Yemen, but the F-35 being able to penetrate because of the stealthiness of this platform and to deliver that capability. And throughout those operations, we’re seeing a tremendous amount of availability and mission capable rates that are demonstrating that this platform is proven, not only by the fact of the combat operations, but also when we look at over 90% of the parts are performing even better than what we designed it for. So really proud of what we’ve done collectively as you know, the Lockheed Martin company, but also in partnership with the government deliver that kind of firepower.

Tom Temin: But the government hasn’t expressed total satisfaction, so I’m just trying to get a sense of what you need to do and to meet what the government says, okay, we’re happy now. I mean, clearly it works and it’s in use, but I don’t think the government is yet totally satisfied with the defect rate and maybe some of the maintenance issues and parts procurement.

Chauncey McIntosh: So when it comes to looking at the evolution of this platform and where we’re going with it, Tom, what I’d say is that we are always going to continue to make this the best platform ever. So as we continue to roll out increases in capability, we are also receiving feedback from our customers and rolling that feedback right in to ensure that we are providing the best solution. So as we get more operational hours right. And we’ve accumulated now over a million of those flight hours. So we’re able to roll back in that feedback loop, just like any product you would assume as our customers use it, we get feedback on new capabilities that we need, as well as things that they wouldn’t want changing. So we’re attacking on both ends, not only the most a capable platform, but ensuring that our customers are satisfied with the performance of that platform. And that’s where there’s new capability on the readiness increases and partnership to make sure. But again, I’ll state this platform is proven and over 90% of the parts on this jet performing better than designed.

Tom Temin: We’re speaking with Chauncey McIntosh, Vice President and General Manager of the F-35 program at Lockheed Martin. I wanted to ask you about Refresh 3. Is that simply software? Is it also some of the pieces and parts, the hardware of it? What is the status there?

Chauncey McIntosh: Yeah, so the program itself is meant to ensure that we are constantly ahead of every threat that’s out there. So when we look at how do we ensure that we are building not only capability, but that we have the right set of computing infrastructure that allows to put new capability on this platform to ensure that we had the best technology available to our warfighters. And so Tech Refresh 3 was essentially an infrastructure project where we needed to go in and increase the compute power of this platform to ensure that we can add new capabilities for the future and constantly stay ahead of the threat. Today, this is the most capable multi-role fighter out there and it’s demonstrating itself in combat like we’ve talked about before. But we also want to make sure that it remains that technical advantage and that we have the computing infrastructure. So that’s what Tech Refresh 3 provides for the platform. And I’ll say we have accomplished that. We have generated and changed out the computing infrastructure of this platform, that now we have the computing power, and so what you’re going to see us do from here on out, Tom, is to continue to lay in new capabilities on top of that computing infrastructure to ensure that we have that technical advantage for our warfighter. So Tech Refresh 3 in a nutshell, done, and now it’s all about the Block 4 list of capabilities that our services have said are critical to them. And that’s what we are focused on delivering that on top with that infrastructure.

Tom Temin: And would it be accurate to say that if it is a computing capability upgrade, presuming that the form factor of the computer hardware is the same from plane to plane, then you can refit every plane because you can get a lot more computing power in a given piece form factor just because of the evolution in chips.

Chauncey McIntosh: Yeah, the way I would look at it, if you’re a simple form, so we have different computing infrastructures, we have the baseline that we have out for majority of the current fleet and we have this new Tech Refresh 3 infrastructure that’s out there. So on that new infrastructure we can lay on all these new capabilities and we’re working with the services on taking the prior configuration of the airplane and place it in this TR3 configuration, and that’s going to allow us to your point to continue to lay on all the capability that we’re bringing as of this Block 4 package of advanced sensors and additional capabilities to stay ahead of the threat on top of the warfighter’s fleet. So it’s very much going to be, you know, once we go now it’s more like your smartphone. We can continue to lay on software updates and additional modifications to stay a head of the thread here.

Tom Temin: And does Block 4 include taking the pilot out of the cockpit so it can fly itself remotely or what?

Chauncey McIntosh: Yeah, it’s interesting that that conversation has been very public I think in our nation. And I’ll tell you right we have been as a company in the drone business for a long time, over 40 years, and you’ve seen us do evolutions of prototyping and other things I can’t really talk about here but just know we’ve been in that business for long time. But from a Lockheed Martin standpoint, we believe that for the foreseeable future, we’re going to need manned fighter jets. And we’re gonna need to ensure that the human-piloted machines out there can go into these difficult and dense situations. However, we see it as an and, that all that drone experience and drone knowledge that we have as a company, we believed that collaboration of say a manned or piloted fighter with drones integrating together is really going to give us kind of that for us that we need in some of these scenarios. So for us, it’s more of what we like to talk to our customers about, and seeing that the F-35 and the quarterback of the skies, not only for the fleet, whether that’s across all the domains, but also now integrating into that drone fashion. So yes, piloted airplanes, but with ownership and driving of multiple drone scenarios here. So that’s the future we envision.

Tom Temin: A quarterback of the sky then, I guess it’s a first round draft pick you might say.

Chauncey McIntosh: It was a first round draft back, you’re exactly right about that.

Tom Temin: And someone told me once that of the remaining, I don’t know, 75 or 80, I forget the exact number, of B-52s that are still in the fleet and still operated, no two of them are alike. And a maintainer, an approaching one, has to figure out which of the 80 this is. With the F-35 and Block 3, Block 4, and all of these upgrades and retrofits of computing power if one rolls into the maintenance bay. How complicated is it for maintainers? Are there 50 different variants of the same thing and they have to have the right manual? Or are they somewhat identical?

Chauncey McIntosh: Yeah, I’ll say by and large, if you look at the F-35 writing, we have the three different variants, the C-TOL variant, the Stovall. If you look at the variance, they’re pretty similar within the variance. Obviously as we find to your point about the computing upgrade that we’ve done, so you may find a difference between there until we do that upgrade on that particular airplane. But for the most part, we use a technology solution that ensures that when a pilot or sorry, when a maintainer goes in to maintain that airplane, that they have the right knowledge, they have the right technical data, so they can go do whatever that maintenance action is. So not huge variances you’re going to find jet to jet. We do often, obviously, as we talked about earlier, take feedback and look at, you know, things that we can do better to not only help the container, but also the pilot that’s in that cockpit as well.

Tom Temin: And on the hardware end are the actuators and the landing gear and all of that stuff that makes the plane articulate and move and be real. That’s all pretty much the same throughout the copies within the variants.

Chauncey McIntosh: Yeah, they’re pretty much the same there within the variance. Again, you will find as we’ve made some improvements over time, and particularly if you go back to some of the older airplanes that were built during the initial design phase of the program where we learned a lot through tests and we’ve make changes to ensure that, we can get to those, as I quoted earlier, where over 90% of the parts are greater than the design requirements that we have for those parts. So if you look at current lots of airplanes that we’re building now, they’re pretty much very similar lot to lot, plane to plane, within the variants themselves.

Tom Temin: And just a question about you, what’s your background to become the program manager in effect of really the signature program going on? Maybe the F-47 will come along, but I think, you know, our grandchildren will be grown before that one is actually, you now, underway if history is prologue. But what’s you background, how did you come to this?

Chauncey McIntosh: Yeah, so a little bit about myself. So I’m at heart, a software engineer. That’s kind of how I started my career. Software, a lot of software integration and tests, kind of on the technical side. And then kind of, you know, maturated through the leadership ranks here at Lockheed Martin, but most recently leading three of our LOBs, I’ll say our training and our sustainment business. So as you were talking sustainment a little earlier, right, really in-depth knowledge of that and leading our organizations to go advanced. Technical data, digital twins, right, all of that of how we move forward in that space. And then most recently, before coming to this role, I led what’s called our Integrated Warfare Systems and Sensors. So that’s really building ships and then platforms and combat systems like our Aegis combat systems there for the Navy and a lot of experience there in bringing the artificial intelligence, I’ll say to the battle space and really ensure our sailors have the most committed. And that’s kind of led me here to this particular role, where we are a large software factory, software house, and really ensuring that we are bringing full capabilities, but also how do we bring in artificial intelligence and really using all of the tools in the sandbag to give our war fighters the best capability possible at the speed of relevance.

Tom Temin: And this is probably a dumb question because I think it only has one seat, but have you ever flown in an F-35?

Chauncey McIntosh: In the simulator I have. So when I was there and had the training division there we also built all the simulation and tools to train our pilots of how to use an F-35, and I will say that’s an awesome capability as well to go sit there particularly to your point. It’s a one-seater, there’s no instructor going up with you. So the simulator really has to do a lot of horse work to make sure that that pilots prepared and so yes, I have flown the sim, but unfortunately the lawyers won’t let me go up in the F-35.