Northrop Grumman announced Wednesday that it has delivered the first set of instructional materials needed to train pilots and aircraft maintainers at the F-35 schoolhouse opening later this year at Eglin AFB, Fla. This “courseware” of electronic materials includes the presentation materials for classroom instructors self-study materials and pilot briefing materials for students. Northrop is one of the principal industrial partners to lead F-35 contractor Lockheed Martin. “The goal is for every pilot and every maintainer to reach the same level of knowledge about the jet, regardless of where they started,” stated Mark Tucker, Northrop’s F-35 program manager. The current courseware deliveries support the Block 0.5 software installed in the first two production-version F-35s. Subsequent deliveries of courseware will support the more advanced software blocks now being installed in the aircraft in the succeeding production lots.
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.