Lockheed Martin officials maintain that a problem with the F-22A airframe revealed last December bears no “safety of flight risk” or reduction in the aircraft’s service life, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Company officials also said that the Air Force is well within its contractual rights to withhold nearly $60 million to inspect the 48 fighters affected by a flaw that could lead to cracking. Air Force officials earlier this year told lawmakers that they had not restricted flight for any F-22s because of a “misapplied” standard in heat-treating the titanium in the forward section of the airframe.
A combined Navy and Air Force program is seeking to build a smaller version of a ubiquitous air-to-air missile that could give advanced aircraft, such as the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, greater magazine depth in a high-end fight.