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![‘Boy, Do I want To Get Away From Being The Trillion Dollar Airplane’: Bogdan](https://sites.breakingmedia.com/uploads/sites/3/2013/03/f-35blanding2-225x150.jpg)
FAIRFORD, UK: Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan hates being labeled the man who oversees the trillion dollar jet fighter, also known as the Joint Strike Fighter as you can tell from the headline. Breaking Defense readers will remember that this estimate is extends more than half a century and includes such assumptions as the Marines will…
By Colin Clark![F-35 Stumbles While New Long-Range Strike Bomber Starts In Secret](https://sites.breakingmedia.com/uploads/sites/3/2012/02/long-range-strike-bomber-northrop-225x150.jpg)
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, FLORIDA: Even as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel flew here with much fanfare to reaffirm his “strong, strong confidence” in the troubled F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Air Force quietly let slip they have started a competition for the Long-Range Strike Bomber. The two programs could hardly be more different. JSF is…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.![‘My Last Ship Was Older Than I Was’: Sailor Quizzes SecDef On New SSBNs](https://sites.breakingmedia.com/uploads/sites/3/2012/03/ohioclasssubmarinemaine01-225x150.jpg)
KINGS BAY NAVAL SUBMARINE BASE, GEORGIA: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel came here Wednesday to celebrate the Navy’s nuclear deterrence force. But just 20 minutes in, a petty officer second class stood up in front of almost 200 of his comrades and pointed out the $95 billion elephant in the room: Can the Navy afford to…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.![US Nuke Focus Has Drifted ‘A Little:’ Hagel](https://sites.breakingmedia.com/uploads/sites/3/2011/10/1748284-225x150.jpg)
Submarine Base Kings Bay, Ga: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, during a two-day round of base visits to highlight top budgetary concerns, told an all-hands gathering of nuclear submariners today that America’s military has let its focus on nuclear issues “drift” under pressure from the last 13 years of land wars. “Over the years we’ve let our focus on the nuclear…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. and Colin ClarkMulti-Domain Operations: Global C2 and Joint Operations
![Navy Finally Admits It Can’t Afford Fleet, Esp. New SSBNs](https://sites.breakingmedia.com/uploads/sites/3/2012/10/ohio-ssbn-090109-n-1255r-098-225x150.jpg)
WASHINGTON: “Unsustainable.” That’s the Navy’s own official assessment of the spending rates required to keep the fleet large and modern enough to do its missions. For the service to state this in writing ratchets up not just the rhetoric but the likelihood of future budget battles in the Pentagon and on the Hill — especially…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.![No Decisions Yet On F-35B UK Flights; Tomorrow Looms](https://sites.breakingmedia.com/uploads/sites/3/2014/07/F-35Bs-over-Pax-River-225x150.jpg)
WASHINGTON: The F-35Bs have not left Patuxent River Naval Air Station to make their way across the Atlantic Ocean. After an all–hands meeting this morning to discuss the issue of securing a waiver or permission to fly from NAVAIR, Naval Air Systems Command — who must decide if the Marine Corps planes are airworthy —…
By Colin Clark![Northrop Takes The Lead From BAE On $11B T-X Trainer](https://sites.breakingmedia.com/uploads/sites/3/2014/07/BAE-Systems-Hawk-trainers-in-UK--225x150.jpg)
WASHINGTON: While Northrop Grumman isn’t doing much at the upcoming Farnborough Air Show — at least publicly — they certainly shook things up today with their announcement that they are swapping places with BAE Systems to take the lead role in the competition for the $11 billion, 350-plane T-X trainer program. While the BAE-Northrop team…
By Colin Clark![F-35 Fleet Grounded: Air Show Flights May Still Happen](https://sites.breakingmedia.com/uploads/sites/3/2014/07/F-35B-in-STOVL-mode-225x150.jpg)
UPDATED: F-35s Grounded, Say OSD, JPO. Still Hoping For Air Show Flights (Thursday 9 pm) WASHINGTON: The Fourth of July may not be much of a holiday for the pilots and program officials trying to decide if the F-35 can fly safely to Britain after the recent fire at Eglin Air Force Base. UPDATE One…
By Colin ClarkForward Observer: Technologies for 21st Century Security
![Lockheed Martin logo](https://sites.breakingmedia.com/uploads/sites/3/2023/06/Lockheed_Martin_logo.svg-b.png)
![Top US Officials Return To Farnborough As F-35 Debuts](https://sites.breakingmedia.com/uploads/sites/3/2012/11/frankkendall-225x150.jpg)
WASHINGTON: If you want to know how important the F-35 program is to American strategy and to American business note that Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James and Frank Kendall, the czar of Pentagon acquisition, top the list of senior American officials going to the Farnborough Air Show this year, making this the largest and…
By Colin Clark![Rotorcraft’s Next Great Step May Start Next Month](https://sites.breakingmedia.com/uploads/sites/3/2014/06/Sikorsky-Boeing-Joint-MultiRole-JMR-FVL-225x150.jpg)
WASHINGTON: Want to see an advanced helicopter fly faster than 230 knots? Well, don’t get out your binoculars and cameras yet, aircraft-watchers. What may be the next great leap forward in rotorcraft technology begins a month from now with a baby step. By early August, the Army-run Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator program is to choose…
By Richard Whittle![The F-35 Flies Amid Europe’s Mature Aeronautics Market](https://sites.breakingmedia.com/uploads/sites/3/2012/01/f-35b-landing-on-wasp-225x150.jpg)
The F-35 Lightning II European debut in July will be welcome, but it remains the Punch and Judy program of the defense aerospace sector, with boosters and detractors taking turns to bash each other’s argument as to the project’s value — or lack thereof. The debate, though sometime not worthy of the word, has risked…
By Douglas Barrie![AETC Sharing Info On Fire Damaged F-35A; F-35Bs Resuming Flight](https://sites.breakingmedia.com/uploads/sites/3/2013/03/f-35blanding2-225x150.jpg)
WASHINGTON: The Marines plan to get their F-35Bs back up in the air this afternoon after last week’s F-35A fire at Eglin Air Force Base and remain committed to flying several planes to the Royal International Air Tattoo and the Farnborough Air Show in the United Kingdom. “The Marine Corps will resume F-35B flight operations…
By Colin Clark![Marines Won’t Take The Beaches Head-On Any More; ‘Find The Gaps’](https://sites.breakingmedia.com/uploads/sites/3/2014/06/Amtank-landing-at-Peleliu-on-D-Day-225x150.jpg)
WASHINGTON: Tarawa. Saipan. Iwo Jima. Peleliu. Okinawa, Inchon. These are among the most sacred names in Marine Corps history. They define the sea-borne warriors’ in so many ways: sacrifice, grit, honor, competence. To most Americans, and to many Marines, those amphibious assaults are the soul of the Corps. But those bloody and costly frontal assaults are…
By Colin Clark
One does not build military aircraft to fly at air shows. It is fun to see the planes, to visit static displays and to talk with manufacturers and users. But the reality of what a plane can do is only seen in battle and advanced training, where operators, maintainers and leaders in real world combat…
By Robbin Laird