The Army has spoken now so there must be an agreement in the offing for Air Force-Army cooperation on a Light/Future Cargo Aircraft. Army Brig. Gen. Stephen Mundt, head of the Army’s Aviation Task Force, said late last week, according to the newsletter Defense Daily, that the two services would sign an MOU, calling upon them to agree on a platform within 90 days. (We guess the word about that joint program office was good.) At issue here was the Army plan to replace the C-23 Sherpas flown by the Army National Guard and Air Force efforts toward developing a new intratheater airlifter.
It'll take up to 18 months for Lockheed Martin to deliver the 100 or so F-35s that went directly from production line to storage, awaiting the completion of Tech Refresh 3 testing. Customers haven't complained about the order in which the backlog is being delivered.