Lockheed Martin is putting a software engineering specialist in charge of its F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program as the current director retires.
Chauncey McIntosh, currently Lockheed vice president and deputy of the F-35 program, will take over as general manager of the program on December 1, the company said Wednesday.
Bridget Lauderdale, who currently leads Lockheed’s F-35 program, will retire at the end of the year after 38 years with the company.
“Chauncey is an exceptional leader with clear qualifications necessary to lead the F-35 program,” said Greg Ulmer, president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. “These types of critical leadership appointments will continue to advance our 21st century security solutions to support our growing customer needs.”
21st Century Security is Lockheed Martin’s strategy to integrate physical hardware with digital technologies and make defense supply chains more resilient.
McIntosh previously served as vice president and general manager of integrated warfare systems and sensors for Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems. During that time, McIntosh oversaw software development for the Aegis weapons system, as well as management of missile defense, radar, shipbuilding, directed energy and combat systems integration programs.
The F-35 program has suffered from its own software problems, which were a major factor in the recent year-long supply freeze. As of July 2023, the Pentagon refused to accept delivery of new F-35s that would include an upgrade known as Technology Refresh 3 or TR-3, which promised better displays, computer memory and processing power.
TR-3 had software issues and problems integrating with the F-35’s new hardware. This, along with hardware delays, led to a halt in deliveries and left dozens of fighter jets in storage at Lockheed’s facility in Fort Worth, Texas.
Lockheed eventually developed a “shortened” form of the software that worked well enough to deliver the jets and fly training missions. But these jets still cannot fly combat missions and likely won’t be ready for combat until 2025. The government is withholding approximately $5 million in payments to Lockheed for each jet until the TR-3’s combat capabilities are qualified and delivered.
In addition to working with the F-35 and Aegis programs, McIntosh’s time at Lockheed has included overseeing program and project management, software engineering, systems engineering and avionics design for the F-22 Raptor, C- 5 Galaxy, P-3 Orion and S-3 Viking aircraft.