Alcoa announced Thursday that it will refurbish and repair its 50,000-ton forging press in Cleveland over the next two years to support the F-35 strike fighter program. The company will invest more than $110 million in the Cleveland Works through 2011 renovating the massive, 92-foot press, which will cast aluminum bulkheads for the F-35. The press has stood idle since August 2008 when cracks were discovered in it. Right now Alcoa is using a smaller, 35,000-ton press, also in Cleveland, to supply the F-35 bulkheads. But the need for bulkheads will exceed the capacity of the smaller press at some point next decade as Lockheed Martin reaches full rates of production for the fighter, Bloomberg news wire service reported Thursday, citing William Christopher, Alcoa executive vice president. “The F-35 absolutely is the driving factor” behind the repair and refurbishment, said Christopher.
After years of describing to lawmakers and Pentagon leaders the nature of that threat and the key role spacepower plays in deterring conflict in the domain and enabling the rest of the joint force, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman told reporters during AFA’s Warfare Symposium here that the message appears to…