Major F-35 Performance Targets Loom In Fall

By Amy Butler, Robert Wall, Guy Norris, Jen DiMascio .
Le Bourget, Le Bourget, Le Bourget, Washington .

There is nothing that concentrates the mind like the prospect of a hanging. This quip came to mind for U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn when asked whether the Lockheed Martin F-35B was still on “probation.” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in January that if performance of the short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing (Stovl) version of the F-35—the most expensive of the three variants—does not improve, he ...

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