By Valerie Insinna February 5, 2018 Look at the skies above Kadena Air Base on the Japanese island of Okinawa and twice daily you’ll get a glimpse of U.S. Air Force F-35 fighter jets taking off, only to land several hours later. Watch the base itself and you’ll see maintainers working round the clock to […]
March 3, 2018 “Right now, we can’t afford the sustainment costs we have on the F-35,” Ellen Lord, the new Defense Department undersecretary for defense acquisition and sustainment, told reporters this week. “And we are committed to changing that.” The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is the most expensive weapons program in US history and remains […]
By Cory Dawson March 20, 2018 School officials will begin conducting noise pollution tests soon at a South Burlington elementary school that sits about a half mile from Burlington International Airport runways. For years, teachers, students and staff at Chamberlin School — with 250 students from kindergarten through 5th grade — have endured jet noise […]
By Maria Powell March 9, 2018 Last night the National Guard and U.S. Air Force held a “scoping” meeting for the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that must be developed before “beddown” of F35s at Madison Truax military base. The National Guard Bureau (NGB) is managing the EIS process with a consulting firm. The purpose of […]
By Maria Powell March 11, 2018 How loud will supersonic F-35 fighter jets be? What munitions will they carry? Throughout the National Guard Bureau’s (NGB) Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) scoping session on March 8, a video showed clips of different kinds of F-35 jets, including the F-35A jet that the U.S. Air Force wants to […]
By Barbara Starr and Ryan Browne March 15, 2018 Two naval aviators have been declared dead after their FA-18 fighter jet crashed off the coast of Key West, Florida, on Wednesday around 4:30 p.m., the US Navy announced on Twitter. The two-person crew ejected, Navy Cmdr. Mike Kafka said. The Navy added that the jet, […]
By Paul Fleckenstein March 14, 2018 Burlington, Vermont, last week approved a referendum directing local officials to oppose the basing of the F-35 warplane at the Vermont Air National Guard Station in Burlington. While majority opposition to the basing has been clear in neighboring towns, the referendum marked the first time the issue has been […]
By Valerie Insinna March 9, 2018 Under the F-35 joint program office’s latest plan, follow-on modernization for the Joint Strike Fighter could add up to a total of $16 billion, the Defense Department’s program head confirmed Wednesday. Responding to questions from lawmakers about the price of implementing the new Continuous Capability Development and Delivery strategy, or C2D2, Vice […]
By Matthew Cox March 7, 2018 Lawmakers on Wednesday put senior military officials on the spot to explain how current acquisition reform efforts will prevent costly programs such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter from becoming “too big to fail.” Members of the House Armed Services Committee met with acquisition chiefs from the Army, Navy […]
By David Brennan March 9, 2018 The F-35 stealth jet will need an additional $16 billion worth of upgrades and development, the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee has been told. The F-35, made by Lockheed Martin, is already the most expensive weapons program of all time. It has now been revealed that the F-35 […]