IOT&E

presented by
Air Warfare

16 Months Late, F-35 Starts Key Tests: IOT&E

WASHINGTON The F-35 program office announced today the aircraft had finally reached its initial operational test & evaluation phase, which is expected to wrap up next September. That’s three months behind previous projections for mid-summer — the result of the program’s first crash (fortunately non-fatal) and a subsequent grounding — and 16 months behind the […]

Air Warfare

KC-46 Faces 3 Category One Deficiencies; Two Affect Boom

AFA: The four-star chief of Air Mobility Command wants his new KC-46 Pegasus tankers “yesterday,” but the tanker’s boom has a nasty tendency to scrape up planes it’s trying to refuel, as well as two other category one deficiencies, and contractor Boeing has to fix those. The paint scraping problem — formally known as “undetected […]

presented by
Naval Warfare

Navy’s ‘Klingon Bird Of Prey’ Passes Key Tests: LCS Trimaran

[UPDATED with shock trials] The strangest-looking ship in the Navy is conducting two crucial tests. A broad, triple-hulled “trimaran” design likened to a villain’s vessel from Star Trek, the Independence-class Littoral Combat Ship completed its Initial Operational Test & Evaluation on June 3rd. What’s more, the Navy Sea Systems Command announced yesterday, the USS Coronado (LCS 4) wrapped […]