Denmark to bring home F-35 jets from Arizona amid upgrade delays

PARIS — Denmark plans to bring home its six F-35 Joint Strike Fighters currently being used to train pilots in the U.S. as the delivery schedule for an upgraded version of the aircraft continues to slip.

The six Danish F-35 jets in TR-2 configuration stationed at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona will be repatriated to the Royal Danish Air Force’s Skrydstrup air base, the Defence Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. They’ll join the four stealth fighters already there to bring the country’s operational F-35s to ten, as Denmark prepares to phase out its fleet of F-16 jets.

Lockheed Martin is running out of space to park undelivered F-35 jets amid hardware and software delays linked to the Technology Refresh 3 update, or TR-3, whose full delivery will be delayed into 2025, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported in May. That’s disrupting fleet-replacement plans by the likes of Denmark, Belgium and Norway, whose F16s have been flying for more than 40 years, and whose fleets are counted in dozens of aircraft rather than hundreds.

“It’s very positive that we have now found a solution, so that the delays from the manufacturer affect us as little as possible,” Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said in the statement . “F-35 fighter jets are a major investment for Denmark that will be important for our defense and security for many years to come, and it’s crucial that we follow the phase-in closely.”

The TR-3 software, originally planned for summer 2023, continues to be unstable, the GAO reported in May , with the watchdog saying some test pilots had to reboot their entire radar and electronic-warfare systems mid-flight to get them back online. The update includes improved cockpit displays and more on-board computing power, and is supposed to serve as the basis for a further upgrade known as Block 4 that adds new weapon and electronic-warfare capabilities.

Lockheed Martin will initially deliver F-35 jets with a limited version of TR-3 that can only be used for training purposes, Denmark said. The Danish jets in the older TR-2 configuration will be repatriated as aircraft with the TR-3 software and hardware upgrade are delivered to Luke Air Force Base, the Defence Ministry said.

Bringing home the TR-2 jets will allow Denmark to maintain the operational milestones for phasing in of the F-35 and increase the training level of pilots and support personnel at Skrydstrup, while allowing pilot training at Luke AFB to continue, the Defence Ministry said.

The Danish move feeds into fears by other European F-35 customers, present and future, that their carefully calibrated aircraft-delivery and upgrade schedules could be perturbed by the TR-3 saga .

While the Netherlands and Norway already operate fleets of more than 30 F-35 jets and therefore face less urgency than Denmark or a country such as Belgium, which is yet to receive its first F-35, the delays risk pushing back full operational capability.

Defense officials in Norway said they have made their concerns clear to the Pentagon’s Joint Program Office, which represents the U.S. and international governments involved in the F-35 program. Oslo’s fear in particular is Lockheed Martin feeding a salad of halfway solutions and different versions into the production pipeline that would grow to be unmanageable.

“We don’t want interim configurations,” said a Norwegian defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

The Netherlands anticipated development delays and in late 2022 requested delivery of six aircraft in the TR-2 configuration rather than the upgraded version, saying deliveries could continue through to March, according to an annual government progress report published April 2.

The Dutch were slated to get their first TR-3 configured F-35 in late 2024, and should the software not be available then, the delays will have a “limited impact” on plans to stand up the third Dutch F-35 squadron in the middle of 2027, according to the report.

Denmark has purchased 27 F-35s, and the remaining aircraft will be delivered in TR-3 configuration “towards 2027,” the Danish ministry said. The situation isn’t expected to affect the donation of F-16s to Ukraine, nor Denmark’s obligations to NATO in a crisis situation, according to the Defence Ministry.

The country will stop training Ukrainian F-16 pilots in Denmark after 2024 as Skrydstrup air base switches fully to the F-35, Poulsen was reported as saying at a press conference with his Norwegian counterpart Bjørn Arild Gram on Monday.

The Danish Ministry of Defence didn’t immediately respond to questions regarding the timeline for repatriating the six aircraft from the U.S. or the delivery of the remaining 17 F-35s.

Sebastian Sprenger in Cologne, Germany, contributed to this report.

Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.

巴黎——由于升级版F-35联合攻击战斗机的交付时间表持续推迟，丹麦计划将目前在美国用于训练飞行员的六架F-35联合攻击战斗机运回国内。

丹麦国防部周三发表声明称，驻扎在亚利桑那州卢克空军基地的六架丹麦F-35 TR-2型战斗机将返回丹麦皇家空军位于斯克里德斯特鲁普的空军基地。它们将与该基地已有的四架隐形战斗机一同部署，使丹麦的F-35作战战斗机总数达到十架。丹麦正准备逐步淘汰其F-16战斗机机队。

美国政府问责局 (GAO) 五月份的报告显示，由于与第三阶段技术升级 (TR-3) 相关的硬件和软件延误，洛克希德·马丁公司尚未交付的 F-35 战机停放空间即将告罄。TR-3 的全面交付将推迟到 2025 年。这扰乱了丹麦、比利时和挪威等国的机队更新计划。这些国家的 F-16 战机已服役超过 40 年，其机队规模也只有几十架，而非数百架。

“我们很高兴找到了解决方案，这样就能将制造商的延误对我们的影响降到最低，”国防部长特罗尔斯·伦德·波尔森在声明中表示。“F-35战斗机是丹麦的一项重大投资，在未来很多年里对我们的国防和安全都至关重要，因此密切关注其分阶段交付至关重要。”

据美国政府问责局 (GAO) 5 月份的报告显示，原计划于 2023 年夏季推出的 TR-3 软件仍然存在不稳定问题。该机构称，一些试飞员不得不在飞行途中重启整个雷达和电子战系统才能使其恢复在线状态。此次更新包括改进的座舱显示器和更强大的机载计算能力，并计划作为后续升级（即 Block 4 版本）的基础，该版本将增加新的武器和电子战功能。

丹麦方面表示，洛克希德·马丁公司最初将交付配备功能受限的TR-3训练软件的F-35战机，该软件仅可用于训练用途。丹麦国防部称，随着配备TR-3软硬件升级的战机交付卢克空军基地，目前丹麦装备的配备老款TR-2软件的F-35战机将被遣返。

国防部表示，将 TR-2 喷气式飞机运回丹麦，将使丹麦能够保持 F-35 分阶段交付的作战里程碑，并提高斯克里德斯特鲁普空军基地飞行员和支援人员的训练水平，同时允许卢克空军基地的飞行员训练继续进行。

丹麦的这一举动加剧了其他欧洲 F-35 用户（包括现有和未来的用户）的担忧，他们担心精心制定的飞机交付和升级计划可能会受到 TR-3 事件的干扰。

虽然荷兰和挪威已经拥有超过 30 架 F-35 战斗机，因此与丹麦或比利时等尚未接收首架 F-35 的国家相比，它们面临的紧迫性较低，但延误可能会推迟全面作战能力的实现。

挪威国防官员表示，他们已向五角大楼联合项目办公室明确表达了他们的担忧。该办公室代表美国和参与F-35项目的国际政府。奥斯陆方面尤其担心洛克希德·马丁公司会向生产线投入大量不成熟的解决方案和不同版本，最终导致生产线失控。

一位挪威国防官员在匿名的情况下表示：“我们不希望出现过渡性方案。”他表示，此举是为了讨论内部讨论。

荷兰预料到研发会延误，并在 2022 年底要求交付 6 架 TR-2 配置的飞机，而不是升级版。根据 4 月 2 日发布的年度政府进度报告，荷兰表示交付可能会持续到 3 月。

报道称，荷兰原计划在 2024 年底接收首架 TR-3 配置的 F-35 战机，如果届时软件仍无法提供，那么延误对荷兰在 2027 年年中组建第三个 F-35 中队的计划将产生“有限的影响”。

丹麦国防部表示，丹麦已采购27架F-35战斗机，剩余飞机将以TR-3配置交付，“预计在2027年前交付”。国防部还表示，这种情况预计不会影响丹麦向乌克兰捐赠F-16战斗机，也不会影响丹麦在危机情况下对北约的义务。

据报道，波尔森周一在与挪威国防部长比约恩·阿里尔德·格拉姆举行的新闻发布会上表示，随着斯克里德斯特鲁普空军基地全面换装F-35战斗机，丹麦将在2024年后停止在丹麦训练乌克兰F-16飞行员。

丹麦国防部尚未立即回应有关从美国遣返六架飞机或交付剩余 17 架 F-35 战斗机的时间表的问题。

德国科隆的塞巴斯蒂安·斯普伦格对本报道亦有贡献。

鲁迪·鲁伊滕贝格是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者。他的职业生涯始于彭博新闻社，拥有报道科技、大宗商品市场和政治方面的经验。