To date, the air forces of Britain, Germany, Malaysia and Turkey have grounded their A400M aircraft in response to May's crash, even as France—the one nation that has continued to fly the A400M—reiterated its confidence in the airlifter’s safety and integrity.
With such damage, “It is likely parts will be returned to the F-35 spares inventory as appropriate,” says F-35 Joint Program Office spokesman Joe Dellavedova. “Other components of the aircraft will be evaluated for potential reuse in other aircraft or training systems.”
Fighters are weapon platforms, and adding new or better weapons is essential if an operator is to make best use of the massive initial investment in the airplane. The choice of weapons has never been wider, reflecting different national approaches to mission requirements, but as we see in the following pages, the high cost of integrating missiles means that not everything is available on every aircraft.
With commercial aircraft output continuing to rise and military aircraft production set to increase, Aviation Week looks at the pressures facing the global aerospace industry.
Northrop Grumman has unveiled the first of five Block 40-standard RQ-4B Global Hawk unmanned air vehicles for NATO’s Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) program amid growing company hopes of additional sales to individual member nations.
The U.S. Air Force is investigating an accidental release of sensitive information that occurred leading up to the June 2 request for proposals for the service’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program.
