It’s been a wild year for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The project has been on much firmer footing since the Pentagon put in place a new course of action in 2011 and officials
. The jet went to Europe twice, making its
, and Denmark said it would buy the plane. The Air Force declared some of its jets
and Israel received its first two planes this month. Two Air Force officers even detailed how the
in a war with China. I visited the F-35 factory in Fort Worth, getting a
underway as Lockheed readies to start cranking out more than 100 planes each year for the U.S. military and allies. But on the other side of the coin, less than two months after the Air Force said its jets were ready for war,
due to faulty insulation. (They’ve since been fixed.) The Pentagon and Lockheed couldn’t reach an agreement during contract negotiations for 57 jets, so the
. Canada
, for now. Two jets caught fire, an
, and a
in October. The issue that caused the latter has been identified, a faulty wiring bracket, and is being fixed by installing a new bracket, said Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, the program boss, this week. Earlier this month President-Elect Trump
a point
by Pentagon officials. But at the same time, the project
. Next year, the Marine Corps is planning to send F-35 to
and Air Force
the jet to Europe.
