EGLIN AFB — Eglin Air Force Base, which hosts software reprogramming laboratories for the fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter jet that serves the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Norway and Italy, will be one of the work sites for a $22.5 million software reprogramming contract recently awarded to Lockheed Martin, the Bethesda, Maryland-based primary contractor for the jet.
The F-35 Lightning II United States Reprogramming Laboratory (USRL) at Eglin, which has operated for more than a decade and is staffed with a combination of military, civilian and contractor personnel, has recently come under some criticism from the Department of Defense's office of the Director, Operational Test & Evaluation (DOT&E), which oversees major defense acquisition programs.