Lockheed Martin said Wednesday that the Air Force now will be able to use common and existing aircraft interfaces when adding new weapons to its fleet. The first case will be AGM-158A Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile. The Lockheed innovation will save big bucks and lots of time by making the new weapon adapt to the aircraft, says Lockheed’s Randy Bigum. Makes sense to us.
U.S. Air Force F-35s and F-22s regularly deploy deep into the Pacific region from Alaska, Utah, and Hawaii. In the future, though, the head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command would like to see the Air Force permanently station fifth-generation aircraft west of the international date line—closer to China.