The novel coronavirus epidemic is starting to affect the Department of Defense on everything from recruitment to fighter production. Here’s a look at its impact so far and how the Air Force is proactively working to counter the spread of the virus within its ranks.
Full-rate production may slip a little further as initial operational test and evaluation and the integration of the F-35 into a virtual wargaming environment play out, program executive officer Lt. Gen. Eric Fick said March 4. Granting Lockheed Martin's pitch to get a Performance-Based Logistics ...
While NAS JRB Fort Worth-Carswell, Texas, is slated to become the primary home of Air Force Reserve Command’s future F-35As, AFRC is now reexamining three bases it has deemed “reasonable alternatives”—Whiteman Air Force Base, Mont., Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., and Homestead Air Reserve Base—to ...
The Department of the Air Force has submitted a $4.2 billion unfunded priorities list to Congress for fiscal 2021, which includes roughly $3.2 billion for the U.S. Air Force and $1 billion for the fledgling U.S. Space Force. The USAF request, which is significantly more ...
Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett visited Airmen at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, Feb. 15 amid continuing tensions over Turkey's ouster from the F-35 program and a December threat by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to shutter the base over political censure from Washington. While her visit ...
The Pentagon is asking Congress to move $3.8 billion, including nearly $1.5 billion in Air Force funding, from weapons programs to the border wall project. The Feb. 13 reprogramming request would shift $2.2 billion from already appropriated base budget funds for fiscal 2020 plus another ...
The Air Force's total budget remains flat in fiscal 2021, with increased funding for space, research and development, and joint service connectivity, but declines in procurement and military construction. The budget funds an additional 1,500 Airmen, and includes a 3-percent pay raise for uniformed personnel ...
The F-35 fleet is safe to fly, despite an under-strength fastener problem potentially affecting nearly all F-35s, Pentagon acquisition and sustainment chief Ellen Lord said during a Jan. 31 press conference. A root cause analysis continues, but the Pentagon has "confidence in the integrity" of ...
Fasteners may have been installed incorrectly on all but a handful of F-35s ever built, but Lockheed Martin believes it's probably not worth it to go back and change out the wrong parts for the right ones. The fastener issue, first revealed by Pentagon acquisition ...
With two pre-solicitations, the Air Force has begun the process of buying the first eight F-15EX fighters, meant to complement the existing fleet of aging F-15C/D fighters. The new jets will have General Electric F110-129 engines, and USAF is also looking to "refresh" its F-15C/Ds ...
The F-35’s problematic Autonomic Information Logistics System, or ALIS, will be replaced by a new system starting later this year, which it is hoped will be more user-friendly, more secure, and less prone to error. It’s also to be re-branded as ODIN, for Operational Data ...
Turkey will be mostly out of the F-35 by March, and all the way out by the end of 2020, Pentagon acquisition and sustainment chief Ellen Lord said Jan. 14. Lord said there’s been no discussion with Ankara about the disposition of four F-35s owned ...