Once again, lawmakers are poised to slap down the Pentagon’s attempt to kill the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter alternate engine program. The House Armed Services Committee air-land panel has recommended cutting one aircraft and reducing the Air Force and Navy F-35 research and development accounts by $125 million each to fund a second alternate engine in the 2008 defense authorization bill. Panel chairman Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) recognizes that “cost pressures” led the Pentagon to terminate the program, but he maintains that “this mark recognizes the potential benefits of a competitive program.”
The Pentagon agency charged with building and operating U.S. spy satellites recently declassified some details about a Cold War-era surveillance program called Jumpseat—a revelation it says sheds light on the importance of satellite imaging technology and how it has advanced in the decades since.
