Britain has now signed a memorandum of understanding on the production and follow-on development portions of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. Despite sticky wickets earlier this year over the extent of technical cooperation the US would extend to Britain, the United Kingdom on Tuesday joined Australia (separately Dec. 12), Canada (Dec. 11), and Netherlands (Nov. 14) in signing MOAs to continue cooperating on the JSF. US defense officials expect the other countries—Denmark, Italy, Norway, and Turkey— in the original nine-member partnership to sign MOAs soon.
Air Force Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost—a trailblazer and one of the first 10 women to reach a four-star rank across the U.S. military—retired and passed control of U.S. Transportation Command to Air Force Gen. Randall Reed on Oct. 4, finishing an eventful tenure at TRANSCOM.