The UK Royal Navy is to use Saab’s remote air traffic control tower technology to manage a remote satellite airfield in Cornwall.

A decade of durability and fatigue testing revealed that 30 parts on the F-35B could fail between 2,000 and 4,000 flight hours, or far short of the 8,000 flight hour service life required in the original development contract awarded to Lockheed in 2001. 

The Israeli government has confirmed it will acquire a third squadron of Lockheed Martin F-35s as well as heavy-lift helicopters and advanced munitions as part of its new arms procurement program to update the Israeli Defense Forces. 

Despite the fact that the U.S. Air Force is advocating for a Pentagon-wide tactical aircraft study that may push the service to purchase cheaper airframes, Lockheed Martin maintains the F-35 will achieve a $25,000 flight hour goal by 2025 as long as the military signs a performance-based logistics contract.

U.S. Air Force leadership from Air Combat Command and Air Force Materiel Command have requested a meeting with F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) leadership and subject matter experts to discuss options and impacts of F135 depot capacity and sustainment concerns.

Boeing’s T-7A already “flies like a fighter” and would require several minor modifications to be adapted from an advanced jet trainer into a combat role, the company’s program manager said.

The U.S. Army has retired the Bell TH-67 Creek training helicopter as part of its transition to the Airbus UH-72 Lakota.  The last of the TH-67s, a derivative of the Bell Model 206B3 JetRanger, made their final flights at Cairns Army Airfield, Alabama, part of the Army’s Fort Rucker Aviation Center of Excellence training center, on Feb 17.

The U.S. Air Force is whittling down upgrade options for the brand-new HH-60W Combat Rescue Helicopter fleet because new threats from China and Russia outpaced the design before delivery of the first aircraft.