Coming off of her less-than-enthusiastic comments last month on the program’s performance, the Air Force’s top civilian acquisition official yesterday slammed Lockheed Martin’s Joint Air-to-Surface-Standoff Missile program—saying recent test failures may prevent its certification. Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon Wednesday, Sue Payton confirmed the Air Force and Pentagon leadership were deciding whether or not to keep the program over the next month. Problems in the navigation system and reliability issues have led the Air Force to consider other options, according to Payton.
U.S. Indo-Pacific Command has two new squadrons of F-35s at its disposal in Alaska just as “quite a bit of action” has taken place in the combatant command’s area of responsibility and the “advanced threats” there are becoming “more lethal,” said the squadrons’ wing commander, Col. David J. Berkland. Berkland’s…