The management reserve account for the F-35 Lightning II fighter, designed to fund unexpected development cost increases, is running low. Contractor Lockheed Martin has therefore requested reductions in the number of test aircraft, test flights, and personnel, Bloomberg news reports (via Fort Worth Star-Telegram). Lockheed informed DOD that the management reserve account—which should ideally have $2 billion in it—could run out by the end of the year if changes to the testing regime are not made. “When you run out of your management reserve, it’s just like not having any insurance,” explained Sue Payton, Air Force acquisition czar. The news service reported that the account had declined to just $392 million. The contractor proposes cutting at least two aircraft from the flight-test program and shifting portions of the testing to simulators.
SDA Outlines Missile Tracking Satellite Plan
April 16, 2021
The Defense Department's Space Development Agency wants to blanket Earth with a constellation of low-cost, open-architecture data-relay and missile-tracking satellites whose sheer numbers, along with their 1,000-kilometer-high orbits, would theoretically thwart some modes of interference—but not all. With all going according to plan so far, SDA expects to launch five…