General Electric could find itself in a contest with incumbent Pratt & Whitney for a replacement for the F-35’s engine.
By Valerie InsinnaROC-X – The solution to organic precision strike capabilities
At AUSA Global Force 2024, IAI will present integrated, AI-driven combat systems – both manned and unmanned – that are opening new opportunities on the battlefield.
Scheduled maintenance for the F-35’s engine in the mid-2020s will drive up the price of engine sustainment, just as the Pentagon expects cost reduction goals come to fruition.
By Valerie Insinna
“We’ve always been bullish on the program’s prospects, but admit we’re more worried than we have been in a long time,” wrote Roman Schweizer of Cowen Washington Research Group.
By Theresa Hitchens
The long road the F-35 took to finally being ready to deploy has forced the Navy’s new $13 billion carrier class to leave the plane behind — for now at least.
By Paul McLeary
UPDATED: Adds Rep. Turner Pledge To Hold HASC Hearings WASHINGTON: It may not last long, but the entire F-35 fleet — all versions from all countries — was just grounded “while the enterprise conducts a fleet-wide inspection of a fuel tube within the engine on all F-35 aircraft.” The British — clearly hungry to keep…
By Colin Clark and Paul McLeary
As the Pentagon and the defense industry rush to keep up with the shift to great power competition and the fight for tech workers rushing for Silicon Valley, the idea of technology incubators is catching fire.
By Paul McLeary
Donald Trump has bemoaned the “over budget, behind schedule” F-35 program. He opened his first press conference as president-elect with a vow to do “big things” to bring down the aircraft’s cost and improve performance. That will take more than jaw-boning. Applying heat to Lockheed will reduce costs to a degree, but it would take another…
By John Venable
B-21, hypersonics and more: How digital development is driving industry innovation
Technological advancements are key to keeping pace with customer demands and evolving threat landscapes.
ABOARD USS GEORGE WASHINGTON: “It makes it real.” That’s what Tom Briggs, acting chief of test for the Navy, said as he watched F-35C after F-35C launched from the ship’s steam catapults during a long Monday. Briggs, who has led much of the testing for the Marines’ F-35Bs and the Navy’s F-35Cs, was visibly proud…
By Colin Clark
UPDATED: Adds ACC Carlisle, CSAF Goldfein, SecAF James JPO Bogdan Comments PENTAGON: Critics of the F-35 warned it was too heavy. They warned its stealth wasn’t good enough. They warned stealth, however good, wasn’t enough against advanced detection methods. They warned its range was too short and its weapons load too light. They warned it was…
By Colin Clark RIAT: Who knows if it’s coincidence or not, but the Pentagon today announced that after a seemingly endless negotiation for the tenth Low Rate Initial Production lot, Pratt and Whitney was awarded $1.5 billion for 99 F135 engines, as well as backups and spare parts. Unit prices for the conventional takeoff and landing systems came down by 2.6 percent.…
By Colin Clark
WASHINGTON: The B-21 bomber probably uses some common technologies and equipment to that used for the Joint Strike Fighter’s F135 engine. We can’t be certain because no one will confirm it. But Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, head of the F-35 program, did tell the annual McAleese/Credit Suisse conference this: “There are some things we learned from the…
By Colin Clark
PARIS AIR SHOW: Pratt & Whitney has refused to disclose the price of its F135 engines for the F-35 for quite a while, even while Lockheed Martin boasted it would bring down the price of the Joint Strike Fighter to $80 million a copy — including engine. Now we know why. At a Monday briefing…
By Colin Clark
ABOARD USS WASP: When the Marines decided to bring the press aboard the USS Wasp for the F-35B’s first set of operational tests — takeoffs, landings and flights designed to nearly simulate combat conditions — they provided the world with a glimpse of how they will fight using amphibious ships, F-35Bs and V-22 Ospreys. We…
By Colin Clark
ABOARD USS WASP: When you start getting bored during an operational test after watching the seventh or eighth F-35B float down the carrier deck and slip up into the air, you know the Marines and Navy are doing something right — or being very lucky. The six pilots have put their planes into the air close to…
By Colin Clark
