MBDA announced that the SPEAR air-to-surface missile completed its first flight aboard a U.S. Marine Corps F-35B test aircraft earlier this year. The flight at Naval Air Station Patuxent River marked another stage in the integration programme for the weapon onto the UK’s F-35B fleet, with additional testing activities planned.
F-35C fighters from the U.S. Marine Corps’ VMFA 314 squadron aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln conducted multiple strikes on Houthi weapons storage facilities in Yemen. The F-35C stealth fighter model has longer, folding wings and, like the F/A-18, is designed to be launched from the catapults of aircraft carriers, allowing it to carry heavier payloads than the F-35B.
The acquisition of the S-400, differing points of view on the war in Ukraine, eye-watering costs, a domestic 5th gen fighter program and never having operated any U.S. fighter aircraft are some of the reasons why India can’t and shouldn’t consider the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter.
Japan has asked for 63 conventional F-35A & 42 F-35B Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing aircraft, and also plans to build its own stealth fighter by 2031.
The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced approvals for 08 V-22 tiltrotor aircraft to Indonesia, 03 E-2Ds Advanced Hawkeye aircraft to France, 06 UG-60M Black Hawk helicopters to Lithuania and 27 Stryker ICVs to Argentina as part of five separate sales amounting to USD 7.48 billion.
BAE Systems and the U.S. government will deliver 25 M777 Ultra Light Howitzers off the shelf, while a further 120 will be assembled in India with Indian partner Mahindra.
