If the presence of popup threats are a threat, then escort F-35s will also likely be present to minimize the likelihood of follow-on F-35s having to dump external stores.

This DN series is actually pretty good and thanks to this we got response from LM with current status.

Any good reporter worth their salt would have reached out to LM & the JPO before going to press in order to verify the info and have the latest status.

Instead they published a bunch of hit pieces which shows that the purpose was not to inform, but to drive clicks.

These are not new and we knew last year that it had more than a dozen Cat2 deficiencies going into IOT&E, which are these along with a couple that thy discovered. These are also not new in that thy have known about some of them for years but they were low on the priority list.

The tire issue was reported in April.

A current example of an open category 1 deficiency is with lines on the F35’s landing gear, which can rupture when a tire blows, potentially causing loss of a major aircraft system such as the brakes. Such an event requires some repair work to the landing gear, but contractor officials explained that it is not a safety concern. According to the program office, it is not a safety concern because the current workaround for this deficiency is pilot training to avoid braking on the side of the blown tire. Program test officials said that testing with deficiencies is not uncommon and they will continue to work to address them, but some may not be fully resolved for several years.

https://www.gao.gov/assets/700/698748.pdf

The contract is a “Fixed-Price, Incentive” type so no, it won’t affect this contract unless there is some clause in it about cancelations.