The first of the People’s Army Liberation Navy Type 052D Luyang III destroyer. PLAN Photo
Can China’s new Type 052D Luyang III destroyers successfully see through the stealth of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter?
Maybe. Read More
US Navy Photo
The following is the April 29, 2014 Congressional Research Service report on the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program. Read More
A F-35 A Joint Strike Fighter. Lockheed Martin Photo
The Australian government has committed to buying an additional 58 Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters (JSF) for $12.4 billion Australian or roughly $11.5 billion in U.S. dollars. Read More
An F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter prepares to make a vertical landing at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Ariz. in 2013. US Navy Photo
The following is a December 2013 report from the Pentagon on the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter program. Read More
An F-35B Lightning II aircraft takes off from the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD-1). US Navy Photo
The F-35 program office is confident that the aircraft’s Block 2B software will be ready in time for the U.S. Marine Corps’ planned July 2015 initial operational capability (IOC) date, but a more pressing concern is modifying the existing Joint Strike Fighter fleet to combat-capable standards. Read More
An F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter prepares to make a vertical landing at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Ariz. in 2013. US Navy Photo
Delays in software developing and testing could limit the capabilities of the U.S. Marine Corps variants of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter when the plane becomes operational in 2015, according to a report released today from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Read More
The following is the March, 24 2014 Government Accountability Office report, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: Problems Completing Software Testing May Hinder Delivery of Expected Warfighting Capabilities. Read More
USS Lake Erie (CG-70) operates with other cruisers off the coast of Hawaii on Jan. 27, 2014. US Navy Photo
“Half of the Navy’s cruiser fleet— or 11 ships —will be ‘laid up’ and placed in reduced operating status while they are modernized, and eventually returned to service with greater capability and a longer lifespan,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters during a briefing at the Pentagon on Monday.
“This approach enables us over the long-term to sustain and modernize our fleet of cruisers.” Read More
The canopy of a US Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter on Aug. 24, 2013. US Navy Photo
The U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research (ONR) has developed a new manufacturing process to build fighter aircraft canopies.
The new technique will be used on the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) in 2014 by GKN Aerospace Transparency Systems and could cut the cost of the total aircraft procurement by $125 million over the production run of about 3,000 planned aircraft. Read More
Gen. James Amos talks to reporters in 2011 following a demonstration of the F-35B. US Marine Corps Photo
The commandant of the Marine Corps said the service’s short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) variant of the F-35 Lighting II Joint Strike Fighter will reach initial operating capability sometime in the later half of 2015.
Gen. James Amos said that means 10 of the 16 planes assigned to a squadron would be in place with aircrews and maintainers fully trained and shipboard qualified, he said Wednesday at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. Read More
