The new, public version of the National Defense Strategy, unveiled by Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III on Oct. 27, calls out China as the U.S. military’s “pacing threat,” offers no force-sizing construct nor specifics about numbers of forces the U.S. needs.
F-35A
The Pentagon will soon decide whether to move ahead with a new engine for the F-35, and officials won’t simply table the issue indefinitely, Defense Department acquisition and sustainment chief William LaPlante said at an acquisition conference. He also said calls to break up the ...
Deliveries of new F-35 fighters have resumed after halting in September following the discovery that a Chinese-sourced material was used in building the aircraft. The resumption of deliveries, ordered by Pentagon acquisition chief William A. LaPlante, went into effect Oct. 8 and extends through delivery ...
The Air Force grounded its F-35A fighters to check for potentially faulty parts in the type’s Martin-Baker ejection seats. The move followed by a day the service's grounding of nearly half its T-38 supersonic trainers and about a sixth of its T-6A primary trainers for ...
The Czech Republic plans to buy 24 F-35As, which would make it the 16th nation to either buy the fighter or announce the intent to do so and the 10th member or soon-to-be member of NATO to select the jet. The aircraft will replace 14 ...
Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael J. Schmidt took command of the F-35 Joint Program Office on July 5, succeeding Air Force Lt. Gen. Eric Fick, who is retiring. The succession of an Air Force PEO by another—breaking more than 25 years of back-and-forth joint leadership—may ...
The U.S. comptroller general, who oversees the Government Accountability Office, will assess sustainment challenges of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and report back to Congress by March 2023 under a House Armed Services subcommittee markup of the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act. The readiness ...
“We built into this ’23 budget the best information that we had at the time we built the budget,” Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen H. Hicks told reporters in March. “As in any year, we’re going to be working that as we get closer to the ...
The UPL, which was obtained by Air Force Magazine but not released by the department, lists eight priorities the service wants but couldn’t afford in its 2023 budget request, released in late March. The F-35 is fifth on that list.
“We hear a clear call from the Air Force to ‘accelerate change.’ Competition is a great way to do it,” says Gen. Frank Gorenc (Ret.). “We have an opportunity in the near-term to introduce competition through a new engine for the world’s most advanced fighter, ...
RAF Lakenheath to Get F-35s; New VCJCS Admiral Grady Sworn In; MacDill is Next F-35 Base; Pentagon Outlines New "Extremist" Activity Rules; and more ...
The U.K.'s. RAF Lakenheath on Dec. 15 became the first European base to receive a U.S. F-35A Lightning II six years after plans for the delivery were announced as part of an eventual basing of two squadrons of the fifth-generation aircraft. “The Valkyries are leading ...
