It’s hard to know why the F-35 Block 4 upgrade's cost—now $16.5 billion and rising—is going up because it is mixed with the rest of the program, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report.
F-35A
Congress should direct the Pentagon to break out the F-35’s propulsion upgrade from the rest of the program to better to track its scope, schedule, and cost, the Government Accountability Office urged in a new May 30 report. Meanwhile, engine-maker Pratt & Whitney added its ...
The Air Force’s B-21 Raider will be the world’s most advanced stealthy bomber when it is fielded later in this decade. For Air Force leaders, the challenge will be to fund the B-21 program to rapidly acquire the inventory it needs to meet operational demands.
The Collaborative Combat Aircraft will be operational in the late 2020s, several years before the Next-Generation Air Dominance family of systems, Air Force officials told the House Armed Services tactical aviation panel. The CCAs will first be “shooters,” then electronic warfare platforms, then sensors, in ...
Lockheed Martin is again delivering F-35s after a three-month hiatus, following a back-to-flight approval on March 8. Investigators continue to plumb the cause of a Dec. 14, 2022 crash and implement a fix to an issue with the F135 engine. The first aircraft delivered after ...
If the Air Force and Pentagon decide the F-35 fighter needs an all-new engine, it wouldn’t just give the jet range and performance improvements—it would drive a refresh of the entire fighter propulsion industrial base, a GE Aerospace official claimed Feb. 16. Competitor Pratt & ...
A month after F-35 fighter deliveries were halted pending an investigation into a Dec. 14 crash, Pratt & Whitney said it has a fix in hand that will allow deliveries to resume by the end of February. The problem had to do with harmonic resonance, ...
WORLD: Budget: DOD scores $858B defense budget; What the 2023 budget funds for USSF.
Northrop Grumman has revealed that it is developing a new radar for the F-35 fighter, called the AN/APG-85. The new radar will be installed on some F-35s in Lot 17, options for which were set by Lockheed Martin and the Joint Program Office last week. ...
The first F-35A fitted with the Tech Refresh 3 update flew Jan. 6 from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., the Joint Program Office announced. The TR-3 suite of more powerful processors and memory is the enabling upgrade on which most of the planned F-35 Block ...
After protracted political uncertainty, Canada, an original partner in the F-35 developmental program, has formally agreed to buy 88 of the fighters in a deal worth $15 billion U.S. The first aircraft will be delivered in 2026, with full operational capability between 2032 and 2034.
Fallout from the Dec. 15 crash of an F-35B is widening, as the Joint Program Office revealed deliveries of new F135 engines for all F-35 fighters were halted on Dec. 27—while deliveries of newly completed F-35 fighters were stopped the day of the crash. Deliveries ...
