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.)
The Space Development Agency says it’s on track to issue its next batch of missile warning and tracking satellite contracts this month after those awards were delayed by the Pentagon’s decision to divert funds from the agency to pay troops during this fall’s prolonged government shutdown.
