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Germany may refuse to purchase American F-35 fighter jets. This is reported by the German tabloid Bild. According to the publication, the reason for Berlin's decision is the presence of a so-called emergency switch in the aircraft's electronic equipment. German officials fear that the United States may at some point deactivate and turn off the exported aircraft anywhere in the world. If we have to worry that the US might do with future German F-35s what it is currently doing with Ukraine, we might consider terminating the treaty. – said Wolfgang Ischinger, former head of the Munich Security Conference, in...

WASHINGTON — While the Department of the Air Force has not revealed the impetus behind its unusual Jan. 16 announcement that Space Development Agency chief Derek Tournear has been placed on administrative leave, Breaking Defense has learned that the move is related to an ongoing bid protest by Viasat over an recent SDA contract award. According to several sources involved, Tournear allegedly stepped afoul of DoD contracting procedures in the runup to SDA’s Aug. 16 award of two prototype agreements worth approximately $424 million in total to York Space Systems and Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, a subsidiary of Terran Orbital, out...

The investigation into the couple was launched in 2021 after their then 8-year-old adopted daughter was brought to the hospital with organ failure, unconscious and covered in injuries.

Elon Musk again fired insults at the Pentagon’s F-35 program as he prepares to lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency and advise the White House on how to slash federal spending. The billionaire backer of Donald Trump’s election campaign slammed the “idiots” who continue to build manned fighter jets like the F-35 in a Sunday post on X, adding a trash can emoji. In a separate post on Monday Musk, who is CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX, doubled down. “The F-35 design was broken at the requirements level, because it was required to be too many things...

WASHINGTON — After protracted negotiations, the Pentagon and Lockheed Martin have reached an informal agreement, known as a “handshake deal,” for the next two production lots of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the parties confirmed to Breaking Defense.“We have reached an initial agreement as part of ongoing negotiations for the Lot 18/19 Air Vehicle Production Contract,” the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) and Lockheed said in a joint statement.The statement did not share final quantities or prices, saying only that those figures will be disclosed “when a final agreement is signed.” The news was first reported by Air & Space...

Republican Senator John Cornyn (TX) said he “absolutely” wants to review the House Ethics Committee’s investigation of Matt Gaetz. Fresh off of losing his bid to be Senate Majority Leader, RINO Cornyn told reporters that he wants to see Matt Gaetz’s ethics report after Trump nominated him as US Attorney General. Matt Gaetz resigned from Congress on Wednesday evening after President Trump announced his nomination for US Attorney General.

The new supersonic plane breaks the mold with a radical new shape and digital cockpit, but it relies on ancient parts to make it all happen. [Photo: NASA/Wikipedia] NASA’s X-59 Quesst experimental aircraft has taken a major leap forward, firing up its engine for the first time. This marks a crucial and final milestone as the team prepares the first runway and flight tests that will lead to a long series of trials that aim to prove what computational simulations have already proven: that supersonic flight can happen without the deafening sonic boom that marred and eventually grounded aircrafts like...

Pro-Palestinian students rejoiced on August 29, 2024, when San Francisco State University (SFSU) announced it would divest from three arms manufacturers because they allegedly fail to meet "human rights standards."NBC Bay Area reported that the three companies are Lockheed Martin, Palantir Technologies, and Leonardo.The divestment decision followed weeks of protest from pro-Palestinian students. The students "camped out and protested for three weeks in a nationwide call for universities to disclose and divest from what they categorized as companies profiting from Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and the war in Gaza.Caterpillar — a heavy equipment manufacturer, not an arms manufacturer —...

The U.S. Air Force’s Plant 42 in California, America’s premier hub for advanced aerospace development work, especially highly classified military programs, has seen a wave of mysterious drone incursions in recent months. The incidents have now become serious enough to prompt the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to impose new, if temporary flight restrictions around the sprawling high-security facility. The Air Force acknowledged these incidents in response to our questions about purported sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in the area which became viral on social media over the weekend and that local law enforcement appears to have received no reports...

Poland’s Minister of National Defense, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, has signed a contract with the United States for the acquisition of several hundred AGM-158 JASSM-ER air-to-ground missiles. This agreement on Tuesday marks another major procurement by the Ministry of National Defense. Just last week, Minister Kosiniak-Kamysz signed a $960 million contract for the delivery of four reconnaissance aerostats, equipped with advanced radar systems, under the “Barbara” program. “A $735 million contract is being signed today. Another multi-million-dollar contract for the purchase of JASSM-ER air-to-ground missiles, which will be in the equipment of the Polish army,” said the Minister of National Defense. “We...

NASA and Lockheed Martin formally debuted the agency’s X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft Friday. Using this one-of-a-kind experimental airplane, NASA aims to gather data that could revolutionize air travel, paving the way for a new generation of commercial aircraft that can travel faster than the speed of sound. “This is a major accomplishment made possible only through the hard work and ingenuity from NASA and the entire X-59 team,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. “In just a few short years we’ve gone from an ambitious concept to reality. NASA’s X-59 will help change the way we travel, bringing us closer...

BURBANK, CA — In what the United States Government hopes will be the start of a long and fruitful partnership, The Walt Disney Company has been awarded a lucrative Department of Defense contract after overtaking Lockheed Martin in the production of bombs. "This is a momentous day for our company," said Disney CEO Bob Iger. "We now have a useful channel to funnel our bomb-making efforts. Though the fact that we have been producing bombs of immense scale for the last decade has previously only resulted in losing hundreds of millions of dollars, we can now actually make money with...

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.

NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) mission acquired stunning views of Mars in two ultraviolet images taken at different points along our neighboring planet’s orbit around the Sun. By viewing the planet in ultraviolet wavelengths, scientists can gain insight into the Martian atmosphere and view surface features in remarkable ways. MAVEN’s Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS) instrument obtained these global views of Mars in 2022 and 2023 when the planet was near opposite ends of its elliptical orbit. The IUVS instrument measures wavelengths between 110 and 340 nanometers, outside the visible spectrum. To make these wavelengths visible to the human...

In a high-profile public spat with little precedence between the airframe and engine giants, Pratt & Whitney executives are formally accusing Lockheed Martin of prioritizing its own bottom line by seeking an adaptive engine solution for the Joint Strike Fighter.

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...

Although Raytheon is producing 400 Javelins per month with Lockheed Martin as a manufacturing partner, he said, the ongoing fighting in Ukraine has burned through existing weapons stocks.“The problem is we have consumed so much supply in the first ten months of the war,” he said. “We’ve essentially used up 13 years’ worth of Stinger production and five years’ worth of Javelin production.”

The Pentagon has stopped delivery of F-35 fighter jets after the aircraft's maker, Lockheed Martin, found a part used in the jet's engine was made in China, the Defense Department and company confirmed Wednesday...

The U.S. is accelerating production of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, in order to help Ukraine, a Pentagon official has said. Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition William LaPlante made the comments after visiting Lockheed Martin facilities in Camden, Arkansas that produce HIMARS and Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS), according to a news release from the Department of Defense (DoD).