By Hope Hodge Seck March 2, 2018 News that two-thirds of the Navy’s aging F/A-18 Hornets were stuck on the flightline lit up headlines last year. But the defense department’s brand-new 5th-generation fighter program is also struggling to ensure that its shiny new aircraft are flyable, the three-star director of the program this week. Of […]
By Anthony Capaccio January 23, 2018 Efforts to improve the reliability of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 are “stagnant,” undercut by problems such as aircraft sitting idle over the last year awaiting spare parts from the contractor, according to the Pentagon’s testing office. The availability of the fighter jet for missions when needed — a key […]
By BLOOMBERG January 24, 2018 Efforts to improve the reliability of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 are “stagnant,” undercut by problems such as aircraft sitting idle over the last year awaiting spare parts from the contractor, according to the Pentagon’s testing office. The availability of the fighter jet for missions when needed — a key metric — remains […]
By Chris Pocock February 2, 2018 The annual report from the Pentagon’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) again contains serious criticism of the F-35 program. Unresolved problems in the development, plus availability and reliability issues, are all of concern. “The operational suitability of the F-35 fleet remains at a level below service expectations […]
BY JOSEPH TREVITHICK OCTOBER 27, 2017 Whatever you might think of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, it’s safe to say that the Joint Program Office hasn’t had a particularly good week. Reports of hypoxia, cyber security concerns, and the need for a major cost review followed the appearance of a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) […]
By Srivari Aishwarya November 1, 2017 A review conducted by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has recommended that the US Department of Defense (DoD) must address the challenges affecting readiness and cost transparency of the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter sustainment programme. The DoD is sustaining more than 250 F-35 aircraft, with plans […]
By Joseph Trevithick October 27, 2017 Reports of hypoxia, cyber security concerns, and the need for cost review, followed the leak of highly critical review. Whatever you might think of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, it’s safe to say that the Joint Program Office hasn’t had a particularly good week. Reports of hypoxia, cyber security […]
By Valerie Insinna August 23 Northrop Grumman has a pitch to solve communications problems between the F-35 and F-22: Put a new radio on a Global Hawk drone and have it act like a translator between the two assets. The U.S. Air Force’s two most advanced fighter jets, the F-35 and F-22, cannot currently transmit […]
By Valerie Insinna August 30 A wing commander at Luke Air Force Base on Wednesday lifted an altitude restriction on F-35 flights at the Arizona base, but Air Force investigators are no closer to understanding what prompted five incidents of pilot oxygen deprivation earlier this summer. Between May 2 and June 8, five different Luke […]
By Lara Seligman September 18, 2017 The U.S. Air Force is making changes to F-35 flight equipment to make breathing easier for pilots, as the Pentagon continues searching for a root cause of five hypoxia-like cockpit incidents in the new fighter at an Arizona Air Force base… [FULL ARTICLE]