Free Republic

Lockheed bets on F-35 upgrades to remain relevant in an airpower race with China that favors revolution over evolution US F-35 in a file photo. Image: US Air Force Bested at the next-generation US fighter competition, Lockheed Martin is betting big on turning the F-35 into a “fifth-gen-plus” fighter — retrofitting tomorrow’s tech into yesterday’s jet to stay in the game. This month, multiple media sources reported that Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet announced that the defense giant will not challenge the US Air Force’s decision to award the US$20 billion Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter contract to rival...

ASHINGTON, March 26 (Reuters) - The U.S. Space Force said on Wednesday it has cleared Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab and Lockheed Martin's (LMT.N), opens new tab Vulcan rocket to launch national security satellites for the United States. SpaceX was the first company to handle such missions. "Vulcan certification adds launch capacity, resiliency, and flexibility needed by our nation’s most critical space-based systems," said Brigadier General Kristin Panzenhagen, the program executive officer for assured access to space.

Elon Musk @elonmusk The F-35 design was broken at the requirements level, because it was required to be too many things to too many people. This made it an expensive & complex jack of all trades, master of none. Success was never in the set of possible outcomes. And manned fighter jets are obsolete in the age of drones anyway. Will just get pilots killed. The US Air Force Secretary admitted in April 2024 that fewer than a third of F-35s built by Lockheed Martin are actually operational. Ex-US Congressman Matt Gaetz labels the F-35 as a "$100M paperweight", pointing...

Ben Rich from 1975 to 1991, was the Director of Lockheed’s Skunk Works, the division responsible for development of several advanced technological aircraft including the U-2, the SR-17 Blackbird, the F-117 Nighthawk stealth bomber, and the F-22 Raptor. In a presentation about the infamous Skunk Works program, Rich made several unusual comments that had many in the audience scratching their heads. During the presentation, Rich hinted on more than one occasion that more, undisclosed, top-secret advanced technologies have been developed since the F-117 was introduced. Of course, Rich could not go into specifics. Jan Harzan, director of Mutual UFO Network...

What happened to famed US pilot Amelia Earhart? A startling theory suggests Australian soldiers stumbled on the answer decades ago. In the autumn of 1945, a troop of young Australian soldiers was trudging through the muddy rainforests of New Britain, an island in the east of what is now Papua New Guinea. In that part of the world autumn is much like winter, spring and summer — it rains a lot and it’s hot and humid. The Australians of D Company, 11th Battalion, were doing reconnaissance in the mountains not far from the town of Rabaul on April 17. They...

...For several nights, military personnel had reported a mysterious breach of restricted airspace over a stretch of land that has one of the largest concentrations of national-security facilities in the U.S. The first drone arrived shortly. Kelly, a career fighter pilot, estimated it was roughly 20 feet long and flying at more than 100 miles an hour, at an altitude of roughly 3,000 to 4,000 feet. Other drones followed, one by one, sounding in the distance like a parade of lawn mowers. The drones headed south, across Chesapeake Bay, toward Norfolk, Va., and over an area that includes the home...

Opinion The American military-industrial complex, coined by President Eisenhower in 1961, has shaped US foreign policy and military strategy while perpetuating global conflicts The American military-industrial complex, a term popularized by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his farewell address in 1961, refers to the synergistic relationship between a nation's armed forces, its defence industry, and its political establishment. This complex has played a pivotal role in shaping U.S. foreign policy and military strategy, leading to extensive global influence and numerous conflicts over the past century. While wars undoubtedly bring immense destruction and suffering, they have also generated substantial profits for...

On July 22, 1933, Wiley Post completed a solo flight around the world in the Lockheed 5C Vega Winnie Mae. This record-breaking flight demonstrated several significant aviation technologies. It used two relatively new aeronautical devices—an autopilot and a radio direction finder. The autopilot corrected for errors in aeronautical bearing, keeping the aircraft on course. The radio direction finder helped Post navigate the aircraft toward specific radio transmitters along the route.Although the flight was interrupted because Post had to repair the gyroscope and a bent propeller, he set a record of seven days, 18 hours, and 49 minutes, bettering his previous...

One of the plaguing mysteries among aviators today is what happened to Amelia Earhart and her plane after she disappeared without a trace in 1937. Former Air Force Intelligence Officer Tony Romeo has been trying to crack the longtime mystery of Earnart’s plane whereabouts, and a recent sonar image snapped by Romeo reveals he may be close to cracking the longtime mystery. Romeo, the founder of the exploration company Deep Sea Vision, deployed a drone 16,500 under the ocean in Tarawa, Kiribati, in an attempt to find Earhart’s plane. The drone captured sonar images that were the same shape as...

(Robert F. Kennedy Jr.) "The Russians tried repeatedly to settle...major thing they wanted was for us to keep NATO out of Ukraine. The Big Military Contractors want to add new countries to NATO...Why? Because that country has to conform its military purchases... Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Boeing and Lockheed get a trapped market... We committed 113 billion dollars...we then committed another 24 billion since then... Biden's asking for another 60 billion. But the big, big expenses are going to come after the war when we have to rebuild.... Mitch McConnell was asked "Can we really afford to spend 113...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 is starting to boost defense contractors’ revenues, as customers such as the U.S. government restock supplies shipped to Ukraine and countries around Europe arm themselves with an eye on Moscow’s aggressions. U.S. defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin (LMT.N), General Dynamics (GD.N) and others expect that existing orders for hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds, hundreds of Patriot missile interceptors and a surge in orders for armored vehicles expected in the months ahead will underpin their results in coming quarters. New contracts to supply Ukraine directly – or backfill U.S....

NASA’s X-59 QueSST This artist’s concept of NASA’s QueSST jet reflects the airplane’s final configuration following years of research and design engineering. The jet is now under construction by Lockheed Martin at the company’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California. Credit: Lockheed Martin NASA’s X-59 aircraft, capable of supersonic flight while reducing sonic booms to quieter ‘thumps’, has been moved for testing in California. The collected data on human reactions to supersonic noise will potentially assist in enabling commercial supersonic flight over land. The following series of images shows NASA’s X-59 as it sits on the flight line—the space between...

Ukraine's air force has appeared to confirm that a U.S-made Patriot missile system was behind the downing of five Russian aircraft in one day in May 2023. A video posted on Monday shows "kill" markings on the side of a Patriot air defense system that indicate it claimed three helicopters and two jets on May 13. If accurate, this would be a record for a Patriot system in a single day.

Far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene plunged a House Homeland Security Committee hearing into chaos Wednesday by accusing Rep. Eric Swalwell of having a “sexual relationship with a Chinese spy” — leading Democrats to unsuccessfully demand that the remark be purged from the record. Greene (R-Ga.) made the comment moments after Swalwell accused her of “anti-police rhetoric” and showed a print-out of a tweet she wrote promoting “Defund the FBI” merchandise in response to purported bureau bias. “That was quite entertaining from someone that had a sexual relationship with a Chinese spy — and everyone knows it,” Greene shot back, referring...

With the war in Ukraine entering its second year — and the U.S. continuing to provide the embattled country with military aid in the form of rockets, guns and ammunition — the Pentagon is stepping up production of critically-needed supplies. Cancian said Ukraine's use of artillery shells far outstrips the Pentagon's capacity to make them. Precision-fired munitions for the long-range HIMARS system are another need, so Lockheed Martin is gearing up to turn out one new rocket every 10 minutes at its plant in Arkansas. And with the U.S. struggling to keep Ukraine supplied in its fight against a decrepit...

The Air Force last week successfully tested a hypersonic AGM-183A missile off the coast of southern California -- striking a target after reaching more than five times the speed of sound -- in a sign that U.S. weapons are catching up to similar Chinese and Russian capabilities.

Speed can do many things for an aircraft. It can allow an airplane to get to its target quickly and complete its bombing run. Speed can help outmaneuver enemy fighters and shoot them down. It enables survivability to outfox air defense systems. Spy planes such as the SR-71 Blackbird could really boogey. The Blackbird had MACH 3 speed that allowed the bird to outrun surface-to-air missiles. That’s 36.55 miles per minute or 3,216.4 feet per second. In fact, when the SR-71 streaked by, SAMs could barely lock on to target, and if they did the Blackbird was already out of...

The U.S. Air Force is getting serious about developing a so-called adaptive engine for its current and future fighter jets and is now putting the money where its mouth is. Five giants in the industry were recently awarded contracts worth a whopping $4.9 billion. General Electric, Pratt &Whitney, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrup Grumman were awarded contracts worth around $975 million each for the prototype phase of the Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion Program. Until now, only GE Aviation and Pratt & Whitney were developing engines as part of the Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP) with the goal of eventually producing...

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program appears to be in a state of suspended development, with little progress made in 2021 toward improving its lackluster performance. The latest report by the Pentagon’s Director, Operational Test & Evaluation (DOT&E) reveals stagnation and even backsliding in some fleet reliability measures.And that’s just the public DOT&E report.In an unprecedented move, DOT&E is concealing many of the key details of the F-35’s poor performance. For the first time ever, the testing office created a non-public “controlled unclassified information” version of its report, and although there is much overlap between the two versions, the meaningful...

BETHESDA, MD—Sources within Lockheed Martin confirmed today that loud cheering was heard coming from the defense contractor's executive board room. The cheers coincided with the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, as multiple voices within the U.S. condemned the attack and suggested that America intervene in the dispute. "YEEEEEAH!!!!" came a cry echoing through the building. The sounds of high-fives, pounding on the conference table, and a loud, thumping chest bump were also heard. At one point, a chant erupted of, "WAR! WAR! WAR!" Some employees claim they heard the sound of a champagne bottle being opened, while others say confetti...