The F-35 fleet is safe to fly, despite an under-strength fastener problem potentially affecting nearly all F-35s, Pentagon acquisition and sustainment chief Ellen Lord said during a Jan. 31 press conference. A root cause analysis continues, but the Pentagon has "confidence in the integrity" of ...
F-35 Lightning II
Fasteners may have been installed incorrectly on all but a handful of F-35s ever built, but Lockheed Martin believes it's probably not worth it to go back and change out the wrong parts for the right ones. The fastener issue, first revealed by Pentagon acquisition ...
With two pre-solicitations, the Air Force has begun the process of buying the first eight F-15EX fighters, meant to complement the existing fleet of aging F-15C/D fighters. The new jets will have General Electric F110-129 engines, and USAF is also looking to "refresh" its F-15C/Ds ...
Turkey will be mostly out of the F-35 by March, and all the way out by the end of 2020, Pentagon acquisition and sustainment chief Ellen Lord said Jan. 14. Lord said there’s been no discussion with Ankara about the disposition of four F-35s owned ...
The State Department on Jan. 9 approved the possible sale of 12 F-35Bs to Singapore at a cost of about $2.75 billion. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of the possible sale, which is subject to approval on Capitol Hill. The sale would include ...
Maintainers from Hill AFB, Utah, recently traveled to Japan for an F-35 maintenance symposium designed to increase interoperability at every level. Eight airmen from the 388th Maintenance Group worked with a Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-35 maintenance squadron, first discussing lessons learned and then working ...
The draft 2020 defense policy bill prohibits the Air Force from transferring any low-rate initial production F-35 strike fighters to the adversary air role until the Chief of Staff submits a report to Congress detailing the service’s plan for modernizing its organic aggressor fleet. “It ...
The NDAA funded 60 F-35As for the Air Force—12 more than the service originally requested. However, it also the Air Force to provide an aviation force structure acquisition plan by March 1 of 2020.
Thinking past the F-35.
The mission capable rates achieved by F-35s across all users have increased sharply, thanks mainly to more parts in the pipeline, more rapid repair of parts at depots, and reliability and maintainability investments by the Defense Department and its industry partners on the program, Pentagon ...
