Noise Biggest Worry For F-35B On USS Wasp; Marines Fly Through Testing

Noise Biggest Worry For F-35B On USS Wasp; Marines Fly Through Testing
Noise Biggest Worry For F-35B On USS Wasp; Marines Fly Through Testing

ABOARD USS WASP: When you start getting bored during an operational test after watching the seventh or eighth F-35B float down the carrier deck and slip up into the air, you know the Marines and Navy are doing something right — or being very lucky. The six pilots have put their planes into the air close to…

HASC AirLand Bumps Up F-35B, F-18, & Stryker; No F-35Cs Added

HASC AirLand Bumps Up F-35B, F-18, & Stryker; No F-35Cs Added
HASC AirLand Bumps Up F-35B, F-18, & Stryker; No F-35Cs Added

CAPITOL HILL: The House Armed Services Committee wants to add up to six F-35B STOVL jets to the Marine Corps budget, even as it demands new oversight into Lockheed Martin’s long-troubled F-35 program. The House draft National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2016 would not add any F-35Cs, the Navy variant. Instead, it will include up to a…

Navy, OSD Studies Could Save Boeing’s F-18 Line

Navy, OSD Studies Could Save Boeing’s F-18 Line
Navy, OSD Studies Could Save Boeing’s F-18 Line

CAPITOL HILL: Pentagon leaders are pushing hard to keep up the momentum of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Many in the Navy, though, still look longingly back at the Boeing-built F-18 Hornet, whose St. Louis production line faces closure in 2017. There are two independent trends that together could save the St. Louis line and the Navy’s favorite plane. The first…

Pentagon Launches Electronic Warfare Study: Growler Line At Stake

Pentagon Launches Electronic Warfare Study: Growler Line At Stake
Pentagon Launches Electronic Warfare Study: Growler Line At Stake

CAPITOL HILL: The Pentagon has launched a wide-ranging study of electronic warfare, looking across the services at major platforms such as the EA-18G Growler and the F-35’s three versions. “We are doing right now in the Department of Defense a study that looks at all electronic attack[:] what is the situation in electromagnetic warfare across…

Air Force Ups Its Game On F-35, Names 2-Star To Coordinate

Air Force Ups Its Game On F-35, Names 2-Star To Coordinate
Air Force Ups Its Game On F-35, Names 2-Star To Coordinate

PENTAGON: In a clear sign of the growing importance of the F-35 to the Air Force as the aircraft nears IOC, the service is boosting the profile and office of the person working with the Joint Strike Fighter’s Joint Program Office from a colonel to a two-star general. The service announced today that Maj. Gen. Jeffrey…

Ghostrider’s Big Gun: AC-130J Gets 105 ASAP; Laser Later

Ghostrider’s Big Gun: AC-130J Gets 105 ASAP; Laser Later
Ghostrider’s Big Gun: AC-130J Gets 105 ASAP; Laser Later

WASHINGTON: Sometimes smart bombs aren’t the smart choice. Sometimes you just need a big bad flying gun. That’s why the aging AC-130 gunship is still revered by ground troops for its ability to fire a 105mm cannon — a weapon normally mounted on light tanks. That’s why the head of Air Force Special Operations Command, Lt.…

V-22 Perfect For COD: Navy Leaders

V-22 Perfect For COD: Navy Leaders
V-22 Perfect For COD: Navy Leaders

CRYSTAL CITY: Nudge nudge, wink wink, we love V-22s, Navy officials said here today. We couldn’t possibly confirm the Breaking Defense report that the service’s 2016 budget request buys V-22 Ospreys for the Carrier Onboard Delivery mission, they said, but if hypothetically the Navy happened to choose the V-22 to shuttle people and supplies to…

A-10s Strike Targets In Iraq, But Not Syria

A-10s Strike Targets In Iraq, But Not Syria
A-10s Strike Targets In Iraq, But Not Syria

UPDATED: With Targeting Details; Clarification About Syria WASHINGTON: The armored and inimitable A-10 Warthog is being used to destroy ISIL targets in Iraq — but not Syria. “They’ve been flying for a few weeks and have conducted multiple strikes in central and northwestern Iraq,” an Air Force source says. “No missions in Syria.” Kristina Wong of…

New F-35 Prices: A: $95M; B: $102M; C: $116M

WASHINGTON: Lockheed and the government made it official today, signing the $4.7 billion eighth Low Rate Initial Production contract for the F-35. Here’s the full price and the official language: “Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $4,123,746,486 modification to a previously awarded fixed-price-incentive firm-target contract (N00019-13-C-0008) for…

Ayotte To Air Force: F-35’s Mechanics Shortage ‘False Choice’

Ayotte To Air Force: F-35’s Mechanics Shortage ‘False Choice’
Ayotte To Air Force: F-35’s Mechanics Shortage ‘False Choice’

Sen. Kelly Ayotte, leader of the congressional push to keep the A-10 flying, is calling out the Air Force. The service claims it won’t have enough mechanics to keep both F-35A Joint Strike Fighters and A-10 Warthogs flying safely and thus may miss the F-35’s politically important Initial Operating Capability milestone for the F-35A because Congress won’t retire the A-10.…

F-35C To Navy: Note My Lovely USS Nimitz Landings

F-35C To Navy: Note My Lovely USS Nimitz Landings
F-35C To Navy: Note My Lovely USS Nimitz Landings

ABOARD USS NIMITZ: The first F-35C seemed to float through the air toward the slowly pitching deck of the USS Nimitz, looking as if it was hanging by a wire and heading implacably to the ship’s arresting wires. The weather was gorgeous, with the massive carrier sailing some 40 miles off the San Diego coast through…

F-35 Ahoy! Navy Version Of JSF Faces Nimitz’s Tests

F-35 Ahoy! Navy Version Of JSF Faces Nimitz’s Tests
F-35 Ahoy! Navy Version Of JSF Faces Nimitz’s Tests

WASHINGTON: The next two weeks will be enormously important for the Navy’s carrier-based version of the Joint Strike Fighter as two F-35Cs undergo extensive testing operating from the USS Nimitz. The Navy has been the least committed of the three services buying versions of the Joint Strike Fighter, so if the two planes being tested…

Air Force F-35 IOC May Be In Peril; Pratt, DoD Shake On $1B F135 Deal

Air Force F-35 IOC May Be In Peril; Pratt, DoD Shake On $1B F135 Deal
Air Force F-35 IOC May Be In Peril; Pratt, DoD Shake On $1B F135 Deal

F-35 JOINT PROGRAM OFFICE: When Sen. Kelly Ayotte and her supporters blocked retirement of the A-10 fleet, it’s not likely they knew the F-35 program might suffer. But that’s exactly what Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, head of the huge F-35 program, told reporters this afternoon will happen unless something changes. In the conference room where the F-35 program…

E-2D Hits IOC; Navy Hawkeye Gets Larger, Lethal Role

E-2D Hits IOC; Navy Hawkeye Gets Larger, Lethal Role
E-2D Hits IOC; Navy Hawkeye Gets Larger, Lethal Role

NORFOLK: The famed “eyes of the fleet” are getting sharper. The Navy has declared the latest variant, the E-2D radar plane, ready for real-world operations just in time for the 50th anniversary of the original E-2 Hawkeye. The first five-plane squadron will deploy on the USS Theodore Roosevelt next year. Meanwhile, the current E-2C models are…