Despite solid combat performance, the F-35’s high maintenance costs and ongoing parts supply problems continue to be a drag on the fifth-generation fighter aircraft, giving critics ammunition as Congress readies to receive the Biden administration’s first budget. Lockheed Martin is delivering F-35s at a rate of roughly 11 a month—about five of which go to the Air Force—and largely on schedule. Operators seem satisfied with its combat performance. But parts problems, engine support issues that will take years to correct, and an evolving performance-based logistics concept suggest a program overhaul may be coming, once the Biden administration installs its new defense acquisition team.

U.S. Space Command and the Space Force are working on new ways to openly discuss their capabilities in orbit, to get around the lingering overclassification problem leaders have criticized while also ensuring the military can maintain deterrence against adversaries who are improving their own capabilities in orbit. Top leaders of the Space Force, SPACECOM, and elsewhere in the Pentagon have repeatedly said the overclassification of space systems has been problematic, especially in the area of deterrence. Maj. Gen. DeAnna M. Burt, the commander of SPACECOM’s Combined Force Space Component Command and deputy commander of Space Operations Command in the Space Force, said May 3 that the organizations are determining a new strategy for what can be announced publicly. “If I can’t talk about what I have to hold your capabilities at risk, then I really can’t deter,” Burt said during a Mitchell Institute Space Power Forum.

Air Force airlift of aid to India continued in recent days, with three C-5Ms and one C-17 delivering COVID-19 testing kits, protective masks, and oxygen to the country. The third aircraft was set to arrive May 3, with another set to arrive the next day, Pentagon spokesman John F. Kirby said during a May 3 briefing. “Once all four missions are complete, four aircraft will have delivered tons of very needed critical supplies,” he said. U.S. Transportation Command said on Twitter that the deliveries included more than one million N95 masks, more than 440 oxygen cylinders, and more than 1 million rapid diagnostic test kits.

The 916th Air Refueling Wing at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina, on April 30 received the Air Force’s 45th KC-46 Pegasus. Boeing had missed multiple deadlines to deliver the tanker in the weeks beforehand. The KC-46, tail number 18-6055, brings the wing’s total fleet of KC-46s to six, the wing announced. The delivery means the Air Force has accepted three of the aircraft so far this year. It was the first delivery since early February.

Raytheon Intelligence and Space on April 30 received a $228 million contract for the Global Positioning System Next-Generation Operational Control System Follow-On from Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center. Known as OCX 3F, the program builds on ground control station improvements made in Blocks 1 and 2, now planned for delivery in 2022. This includes better cybersecurity, improved anti-jamming capability, and enhanced signal strength and accuracy, as well as the ability to connect to more satellites and shrink operations crew sizes.