Did anyone think that dropping the alternate Joint Strike Fighter engine would be easy? The Senate Armed Services Committee plans to meet next week with international partners in the JSF program and, in a separate hearing, with the deputy secretary of defense and the two engine makers—Pratt Whitney, the original F-35 engine producer, and GE-Rolls Royce, the alternate engine team. Lawmakers in both houses have signaled their concern. Even the top Air Force civilian, who believes there is little technical risk, worries about having only one industrial source.
The top Air Force commander on on the Japanese island of Okinawa has clamped down alcohol and issued a curfew for junior enlisted Airmen and Guardians at Kadena Air Base for the next month. The order came roughly two weeks after a U.S. Marine was arrested for allegedly robbing and…