It’s hard to know why the F-35 Block 4 upgrade's cost—now $16.5 billion and rising—is going up because it is mixed with the rest of the program, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report.
Congress should direct the Pentagon to break out the F-35’s propulsion upgrade from the rest of the program to better to track its scope, schedule, and cost, the Government Accountability Office urged in a new May 30 report. Meanwhile, engine-maker Pratt & Whitney added its ...
The Air Force couldn't find a place for Adaptive Engine Technology Program powerplants on the F-35 in its fiscal 2024 budget request, opting to harvest what it can from its $4 billion investment and press on to the Next-Generation Advanced Propulsion program.
If the Air Force and Pentagon decide the F-35 fighter needs an all-new engine, it wouldn’t just give the jet range and performance improvements—it would drive a refresh of the entire fighter propulsion industrial base, a GE Aerospace official claimed Feb. 16. Competitor Pratt & ...
Fallout from the Dec. 15 crash of an F-35B is widening, as the Joint Program Office revealed deliveries of new F135 engines for all F-35 fighters were halted on Dec. 27—while deliveries of newly completed F-35 fighters were stopped the day of the crash. Deliveries ...
The latest F-35 deal between the government and Lockheed Martin calls for 398 of the fighters to be delivered across production Lots 15-17; nearly 100 fewer fighters than in the last three-lot deal. Meanwhile, unit costs will increase because the newer jets are more sophisticated, ...
The Pentagon will soon decide whether to move ahead with a new engine for the F-35, and officials won’t simply table the issue indefinitely, Defense Department acquisition and sustainment chief William LaPlante said at an acquisition conference. He also said calls to break up the ...
The Air Force grounded its F-35A fighters to check for potentially faulty parts in the type’s Martin-Baker ejection seats. The move followed by a day the service's grounding of nearly half its T-38 supersonic trainers and about a sixth of its T-6A primary trainers for ...
Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael J. Schmidt took command of the F-35 Joint Program Office on July 5, succeeding Air Force Lt. Gen. Eric Fick, who is retiring. The succession of an Air Force PEO by another—breaking more than 25 years of back-and-forth joint leadership—may ...
The U.S. comptroller general, who oversees the Government Accountability Office, will assess sustainment challenges of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and report back to Congress by March 2023 under a House Armed Services subcommittee markup of the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act. The readiness ...
Congress wants new engines in the F-35 fleet, with installs starting in 2027, according to language in the conference version of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act. The Air Force is to use at least one of the engines developed under the Advanced Engine Transition ...
Pratt & Whitney is testing its Adaptive Engine Technology Program XA101 powerplant and has already demonstrated the objective goals for the program, company military engines president Matthew Bromberg said. He estimates that up to 70 percent of the technology could be fitted to improve fighter ...