Lockheed Martin dedicated an F-35 hangar at its aircraft assembly plant in Fort Worth, Tex., to the men and women who built, flew, and maintained the F-35’s namesake, the P-38 Lightning. The Oct. 4 ceremony featured veterans from World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam War, reported the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. At the event, Lockheed Martin officials displayed the rendering of a mural that will be displayed on the hangar’s exterior. The mural includes the words “P-38 Lightning Hangar: The Legacy Continues.” Company spokesman Joe LeMarca told the Daily Report: “The P-38 Lightning was just as revolutionary to air dominance in its day as its namesake, the F-35 Lightning II, is now. It is out of this spirit of innovation that we named F-35 after the P-38. Like the original Lightning, the F-35 Lightning II provides a revolutionary capability in a time of great uncertainty.”
The Pentagon’s new counter-drone task force will play a direct role in arming Airmen with new weapons to defend Air Force agile combat employment, or ACE, air bases in austere locations against enemy drone attacks, the director of Joint Interagency Task Force 401 said Oct. 14.