New Mexico lawmakers in the past have fought to delay retirement of the 20-year-old F-117 stealth fighters and vowed earlier this month to press the Air Force for answers as to why it must move up the F-117 retirement date. Now, they seem willing to let the earlier demise of the F-117s slide. Why? They are pressing for a new fighter—the F-22A—or “something else,” Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) told the political newspaper The Hill. However, Domenici said, the Air Force owes the New Mexico delegation “some assurance of where we are going.” Without that, he said, “We are going to slow down” the F-117 retirement.
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.