According to the water-cooler talk amongst defense analysts and industry types, AugustaWestland’s US101 is leading the pack to win the competition for the Air Force’s new combat search and rescue vehicle, known as CSAR-X. The Lexington Institute’s Loren Thompson tells Gannet News Service that he doesn’t hear much support in the Air Force for “buying anything else than the US101.”
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.