Despite telling Senators that he believes the current plan to upgrade C-5As will win out, Deputy SECDEF England acknowledged that the “higher-than-anticipated usage of the C-17” means the Pentagon “will need likely a few more airplanes.” However, England said that is an issue for the 2008 budget not the 2007 budget.
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.