Lockheed Martin said April 20 that the seventh F-35 flight test aircraft, an F-35A conventional takeoff and landing variant dubbed AF-2, had that day flown for the first time and would be used to validate the CTOL weapons suite. Company test pilot Jeff Knowles took off in AF-2 around 6 p.m. CDT from NAS Fort Worth JRB, Tex., for a one-hour flight. James Sandstrom, Lockheed’s F-35A program manager, called the first flight “a significant achievement for the F-35 program.” AF-2 is the first F-35 to have the internal GAU-22/A 25-mm gun system, made by General Dynamics, will demonstrate internal and external weapons capability throughout the required flight envelope, according to the company release.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
