The Air Force plans to spend $3.3 billion to buy six F-35s in Fiscal 2008, but that’s not the whole Joint Strike Fighter story. The so-called “spring supplemental” for 2007 includes money for two F-35s to replace F-16s lost to the war on terror. And, there’s another combat loss F-35 in the Fiscal 2008 supplemental.
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.