John Tirpak

3 weeks ago | airandspaceforces.com | John Tirpak

Funding to build the next two batches of F-35 fighters, originally expected to be finalized by the end of June, won’t be awarded to Lockheed Martin until sometime this summer, the jet’s Joint Program Office told Air & Space Forces Magazine. The delay is unrelated to challenges with the fighter’s new radar that are reportedly prompting the contractor to consider redesigning the jet’s fuselage, the JPO said.

3 weeks ago | airandspaceforces.com | John Tirpak

The Air Force is ready to add more nuclear warheads to its bomber aircraft and underground missiles if ordered to do so when a key arms control treaty expires next year, its top nuclear officer said June 5. Air Force Global Strike Command boss Gen. Thomas A.

3 weeks ago | airandspaceforces.com | John Tirpak

Eleven years after NATO pledged to spend at least 2 percent of each country’s gross domestic product on defense, “most, if not all” 32 of the alliance’s member nations are poised to reach or surpass that goal in 2025, Secretary-General Mark Rutte said June 4 at a ministerial meeting in Brussels. NATO’s non-U.S. members will now be assigned “capability goals,” based on the role each country is expected to play in European defense, Rutte said.

3 weeks ago | airandspaceforces.com | John Tirpak

Ukraine’s successful attacks on bombers deep within Russia using relatively inexpensive drones will certainly affect the progress of that war, but don’t offer a practical new model for the structure of U.S. airpower, two experts said. While innovative, the raids did not herald a new era of air warfare, which still demands aircraft that can reach far across the globe to hold targets at risk, they said.

3 weeks ago | airandspaceforces.com | John Tirpak

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan to drastically reduce the staff and budget of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation could accelerate weapons fielding, but at the risk of removing the critical independent oversight of an independent Pentagon agency, former senior defense officials said. Hegseth’s May 28 downsizing order said the Office of the DOT&E performed “redundant, nonessential, non-statutory functions . . .