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.
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.