The first Japanese F-35A took its maiden flight on Aug. 24 in Texas. The aircraft, called AX-1, took off from the Lockheed Martin assembly plant in Fort Worth and flew for about an hour and a half, Lockheed announced. The Japan Air Self Defense Force will purchase 42 F-35As; the first four are in production and are expected to be delivered by the end of the year. The rest will be assembled at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries final assembly facility in Nagoya, Japan, according to Lockheed. Japanese pilots will start training in November at Luke AFB, Ariz.
The congressionally chartered National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence has completed its work, but the team that created its 756-page report will continue, backed this time by its former chair, Eric Schmidt, who is committing his own money to the new effort, dubbed the "Special Competitive Studies Project." Schmidt continues…