Lockheed Martin F-35As previously designated for Turkey will be converted to the U.S. Air Force fleet, congressional appropriators said on Dec. 17.

A minor flight test incident in October did nothing to dampen enthusiasm for the Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie in Congress.

House appropriators have agreed to partially reverse a proposed 50% cut to the USAF's requested fiscal 2020 budget for the Next Generation Air Dominance program.

A conference agreement by the House and Senate on Dec. 16 inserts at least three-quarters of a billion dollars in fiscal 2020 budget accounts linked to the U.S. military’s bulging hypersonic weapons portfolio.

The U.S. House on Dec. 17 passed a spending bill that will provide $693.3 billion to the Pentagon in fiscal 2020.

The USAF is extending invitations to countries in the Indo-Pacific region that operate the F-35 to participate in Red Flag 2021.

The amount of spending suggests a greater effort than put into previous concept designs earlier in this decade for the aircraft.

Worldwide Airbus C295 military fleets, excerpted from Aviation Week’s Fleet Discovery Database.