As futuristic aviation programs gain priority, the F-35—the only in-production, fifth-generation American fighter—is facing new headwinds. Fresh debate over its challenges and its potential in the coming months will shape its future role in the force.
Funding to build the next two batches of F-35 fighters, originally expected to be finalized by the end of June, won’t be awarded to Lockheed Martin until sometime this summer, the jet's Joint Program Office told Air & Space Forces Magazine.
President Donald Trump is interested in developing a twin-engined, upgraded version of the F-35 fighter, he said during a press event May 15 in Qatar marking the sale of Boeing airliners and GE Aerospace engines to Qatar Airways. He said he would name the improved ...
After years of serving as the bill-payer for other Pentagon priorities, munitions stockpiles are poised to get a major boost from the $150 billion reconciliation package unveiled by lawmakers in Congress this week, along with the defense industrial base to...
Lockheed Martin's suggestion to upgrade the F-35 with technologies developed for the F-47 Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter could come in a number of areas, several of which are already in hand.
Lockheed Martin won’t protest the award of the Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter to Boeing but is instead looking to port the technologies it developed for the program to the F-35 and the F-22.
Lockheed Martin has received a $180 million contract modification to convert three production-version jets to flight sciences test aircraft, in order to bolster the F-35 test force and ensure no future delays, the Pentagon announced.
F-35s passed targeting information to ground artillery in a demonstration of a new open-systems communications gateway, during the recent Ramstein Flag 2025 exercise, Lockheed Martin said. It’s the first time the secure system has been demonstrated outside the U.S.
As the Trump administration puts the finishing touches on its 2026 defense budget, the F-35 Joint Program Office has issued a statement explaining what all is included in its $2.1 trillion, 94-year program cost estimate.
The Air Force accepted its first new TPY-4 radar from Lockheed Martin and will start government-led testing of the system, the contractor announced April 7. It's the latest in a series of milestones for the service’s ground-based command-and-control enterprise.
Former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall wasn't planning to include the NGAD in the fiscal 2026 budget proposal, saying on a podcast that there were higher priorities. He and former Air Force acquisition executive Andrew Hunter also say the program is structured such that there ...
The Air Force picked Boeing as the NGAD winner based on "best overall value," not necessarily the lowest offered price, the service said.