Pentagon Grounds JSF Fleet After Turbine Blade Cracks; ‘Potential Exists For Catastrophic Failure’

UPDATED: Adds NAVAIR Letter And JSF JPO, Lockheed Statements AFA Winter, Orlando: What happens when all the top brass of the Air Force are attending a top conference on a Friday afternoon? Their biggest program, the Joint Strike Fighter, gets its entire fleet grounded because of a crack in a turbine blade. Details began trickling…

SecAF Donley Says KC-46 Tanker Contract At Risk; Hill Must OK $1B

AFA Winter, ORLANDO: The latest looming casualty to the congressional budget mess is Boeing’s KC-46 tanker contract, which is in peril unless Congress approves roughly $1 billion in funding. If you want some idea of just how much uncertainty and confusion sequestration and the Continuing Resolution are generating, this latest mess is a good example.…

War Or Peace, Drones Market Will Grow, Especially For Infantry

TYSON’S CORNER, VA: With the wars that spawned the drone revolution subsiding, if not entirely ending, the U.S. armed services are taking stock of what they’ve learned and sorting out what to do next to bolster or better the fleets of unmanned aircraft they’ve accumulated since 2001. One thing is clear: war or peace, the…

Air Force Chief Says 70% of ALL Combat Aircraft ‘Non Combat Capable By July’

UPDATED: Added Capitol Hill Reaction AFA Winter, Orlando: Imagine if someone told you 70 percent of all American combat aircraft would not be ready to fly in time of war by July. That’s just what Air Force Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh told some 600 people attending the Air Force Associations’s annual…