Anna Forrester
Military officials say the Lockheed Martin F-35 program is on schedule to meet U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Air Force targets for initial combat readiness, Reuters reported Thursday.
Andrea Shalal writes that U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh have both said that they are confident the fighter jets will be ready by their respective July 2015 and December 2016 deadlines.
Mabus also told reporters at a Surface Navy Association conference that the Navy’s own F-35Â variant should be ready for initial combat use by 2020, the report said.
“We’re not lukewarm about the [F-35C] in terms of the need for it in the fleet, and the fact that it’s going to form the backbone of our carrier air for a long time,” he said.
Shalal reports that Mabus has also hinted at plans to request fiscal 2016 funding for more EA-18G Growlers from Boeing in addition to the electronic attack planes already included in the fiscal 2015 budget.
