Tag: F-35

As the F-35 reaches higher production rates toward the end of the Low Rate Initial Production Phase, the US is pressing international partners and foreign customers to commit to F-35 orders. To be able to benefit from cost reduction, customers must commit to a multi-year block purchase of 450 aircraft.

F-35 PEO: “All weapons tests needed for 2B software, the software the U.S. Marine Corps will use to declare IOC, is complete and will be ready to go for their combat capability certification.”

As part of a major consolidation and realignments of US forces in Europe announced today by the Pentagon the Air Force plans to permanently deploy two of its future F-35 squadrons at RAF Lakenheath. US presence in RAF Mildenhall will be terminated, with assets and personnel supporting aerial recce units flying RC-135 moved to other bases in the UK. Aerial refuelling and special operations units will be transferred to Germany.

The Navy made aviation history Nov. 3 as an F-35C Lightning II carrier variant Joint Strike Fighter conducted its first arrested landing aboard an aircraft carrier off the coast of San Diego. The arrested landing is part of initial at-sea Developmental Testing I (DT-I) for the F-35C, which commenced Nov. 3 and is expected to last two weeks.

Israel’s Ministry of Defense (IMOD) decided to cancel the planned procurement of six Bell/Boeing V-22 tilt rotor aircraft. Available funding will be allocated to the procurement of a second batch of F-35s fifth generation stealth fighters. The cancellation represented another abrupt change in Israel's procurement plans, after the IMOD withdrew an international tended for four Offshore Patrol Boats weeks after distributing the $500 million tender to international shipbuilders.

The U.S. Department of Defense and Lockheed Martin have reached an agreement in principle for the production of 43 F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter (JSF) aircraft. The buy includes 19 F-35As for the Air Force, six F-35Bs for the Marines and four F-35Cs for the Navy. Additional aircraft included are 10 F-35As for Israel (2), Japan (4), Norway (2)and Italy (2) as well as four F-35Bs for the UK.

Lockheed Martin and Rocketsan will collaborate on modifying the Turkish SOM cruise missile to fit into the internal weapons bay of the F-35. The Turkish Air Force currently uses the SOM cruise missiles with its F-4E and F-16 fighters.

The three leading industry partners in the F-35 industry team have signed an agreement with the DOD to bring down the procurement cost of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) to the equivalent of today's 4th generation fighters by the turn of the decade

The technical air worthiness authorities of the Department of the Air Force and Department of the Navy have issued a directive to ground the F-35 fleet based on initial findings from the runway fire incident that occurred at Eglin Air Force Base on Monday, June 23.

An F-35A assigned to the 33rd fighter wing caught fire yesterday while taking off on a training mission from the Eglin Air Force Base. The pilot escaped unharmed and no injuries were reported but the aircraft suffered major damage

The F-35 Lightning II aircraft will make its international debut in July this summer, the British Defence Secretary has announced. The F-35 Lightning II will...

Rafael is proceeding with the adaptation of the Spice 1000 Electro-Optically, Stand-Off guided weapon as part of its roadmap to carry this family of...

A new U.S. Defense Department report warns that ongoing software, maintenance and reliability problems with Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 stealth fighter could delay the...

There have been some wild assertions about F-35 unit cost recently.  See the Lockheed claims as reported in Breaking Defense, Defense News and others that we should expect F-35A...