Speaking at a Brussels media briefing last week, Lockheed Martin CEO Robert Stevens insisted the future of the Joint Strike Fighter project is secure, but he acknowledged that a tight defense budget could lead to a reduction in the planned defense-wide buy of 2,400 aircraft. Stevens maintained, though, that the multinational JSF offers the “best programmatic model to deliver the maximum amount of value.” He believes budget pressures should send the Pentagon and Congress “to look for more, not less value for money.”
A new Navy missile could fill a long-range air-to-air need for the U.S. Air Force’s fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-generation fighters. The Navy’s portfolio acquisition executive for munitions posted information on the AIM-424 Long Range Air-to-Air Missile online on Aug. 22, the same day it unveiled the project at the service’s…