Britain has now signed a memorandum of understanding on the production and follow-on development portions of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. Despite sticky wickets earlier this year over the extent of technical cooperation the US would extend to Britain, the United Kingdom on Tuesday joined Australia (separately Dec. 12), Canada (Dec. 11), and Netherlands (Nov. 14) in signing MOAs to continue cooperating on the JSF. US defense officials expect the other countries—Denmark, Italy, Norway, and Turkey— in the original nine-member partnership to sign MOAs soon.
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John F. Plumb warned lawmakers that Russia is developing an “indiscriminate” nuclear weapon to go in space, confirming reports from several months ago and describing potentially devastating effects in orbit.