The Trump administration is finding Taiwan to be a more than willing partner as it continues to look for ways to counter China

“We would see within 45 to 90 days an impact of the slowing down or stopping of those parts to the three production lines,” Vice Adm. Mat Winter told Congress.

CORRECTED number of hypoxia incidents ARLINGTON: As the F-35 prepares for a massive ramp-up in production, the program is fixing the costly, controversial plane’s last technical glitches, Vice Adm. Mat Winter said in his first press conference since becoming program director. Winter expressed confidence about three problems in particular: air supply for pilots, carrier landings, and… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: As happened with the F-22, the Air Force gets reports of possible hypoxia incidents — known officially as “physiological episodes” — imposes flight restrictions to investigate and then lifts the restrictions without knowing exactly why they happened. That’s what happened today with the announcement that the 25,000-foot restriction on its F-35A fighters was lifted… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON:  The two Air Force F-35As scheduled to cross the Atlantic Ocean and fly at the Paris Air Show are still scheduled to go after Luke Air Force Base declared a one-day stand-down to brief pilots on five apparent hypoxia incidents afflicting pilots there since May 2. “The F-35 Joint Program Office, along with the U.S.… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The F-35A demonstrated higher mission capable rates during its just-concluded European deployment than the fourth generation aircraft it is replacing. “It’s very important to know that we are experiencing reliability rates rates that are unheard of in our legacy fleet with this jet. We’ve seen a very, very high rate of success with just… Keep reading →

The US Air Force and Norway announced the temporary suspension of flight operations for 15 F-35As today because of “peeling and crumbling insulation in avionics cooling lines inside the fuel tanks.” The problem, caused by a supplier, was discovered during depot modification of an F-35A and affects a total of 57 aircraft, 42 of them still on the… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The blogosphere was filled yesterday with bilious smoke sparked by an Air Force story written at Luke Air Force Base about how the fuel trucks there were being painted a new color to keep fuel cooler for the F-35 fleet. Here’s the quote from the official Air Education and Training Command story that started it all: “We… Keep reading →