Flights of the F-35 strike fighter’s sensor suite aboard a BAC 1-11 surrogate test bed at the Northern Edge training exercise in Alaska in June proved to be a “very, very successful demonstration” of those sensors’ capabilities, said Maj. Gen. C.D. Moore, F-35 program office deputy director. “Now our challenge” is to integrate the suite on the stealth fighter, he said during an Air Force Association-sponsored Air Force Breakfast Program speech in Arlington, Va., Wednesday. In fact, along with durability testing and controlling program cost, that integration—and “being able to write” the software for it—is one of the biggest remaining hurdles in F-35 development, asserted Moore. “I think these are the three key challenges the program faces,” he said. (Want Moore? Read Proving Maturity.)
Army Building Up New Space Operations Branch
Oct. 15, 2026
The Army has long been dependent on space capabilities to navigate terrain, communicate in hard-to-reach areas, and identify and strike targets. Now, the service wants to deepen its space operations expertise and is making plans to expand its own cadre of operators in the coming years.