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A U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II in flight. Operations of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II family began in 1995 with the Joint Strike Fighter program.Since its first flight in 2006, the aircraft has faced substantial controversy, shortages in its research and development supply, [1] and safety concerns due to incidents. [2]
After a competition between the Boeing X-32 and the Lockheed Martin X-35, the latter aircraft was selected for a contract award and developed into the F-35 Lightning II, which will replace various tactical aircraft, including the US F-16, A-10, F/A-18A-D, AV-8B, EA-6B and British Harrier GR7, GR9s and Tornado GR4.
The F-35 was the product of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program, which was the merger of various combat aircraft programs from the 1980s and 1990s. One progenitor program was the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Advanced Short Take-Off/Vertical Landing (ASTOVL) which ran from 1983 to 1994; ASTOVL aimed to develop a Harrier jump jet replacement for the U.S. Marine Corps ...
Lot 7 deliveries for 35 aircraft will begin in mid-2015, and includes 19 F-35As for the USAF, 6 F-35Bs for the USMC, 4 F-35Cs for the USN, 3 F-35As for Italy, 2 F-35As for Norway, and 1 F-35B for the U.K. Lot 7 prices are $96.8 million for the F-35A, $104.2 million for the F-35B, and $115.2 million for the F-35C.
On 7 July 2006, the U.S. Air Force, the lead service for the aircraft, officially announced the name of the F-35: Lightning II, in honor of Lockheed's World War II-era twin-propeller Lockheed P-38 Lightning for the United States Army Air Forces and the Cold War-era jet, the English Electric Lightning for the Royal Air Force. [22] [a]
The company's proposal for the Tactical Fighter Experimental project (TFX) was accepted in 1962, with the fighter seeing production as the General Dynamics F-111. By 1966, the plant had expanded to 4.7 million square feet, and by 1968 it had expanded further to 6.5 million square feet, to accommodate production of the F-111.
General Electric and Pratt & Whitney are fighting over the next F-35 engine. It's the most expensive defense program in history, so the stakes are high.
The methodology for calculating these F-35 unit costs is straightforward. Both the president’s budget and each of four congressional defense committees publish the amounts to be authorized or appropriated for each model of the F-35, including the number of aircraft to be bought.