Mary-Louise Hoffman
The U.S. Defense Department plans to use two F-35 fighter units for a demonstration aboard a USS Nimitz aircraft carrier in November, Defense News reported Thursday.
Aaron Mehta writes Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, head of the F-35 Joint Program Office, said the agency has not yet determined if the F-35C models will undergo both catapult launch and arrested recovery trials.
“Whether both those airplanes are fully capable of doing all the work remains to be seen,” Bogdan told reporters at a media briefing Thursday in Oslo, Norway.
“We have some work to do as we lead up to that point in November,†he added, according to Defense News.
Mehta reports Bogdan also offered some insight into the dollar exchange rate’s possible impact on F-35 program costs.
“With the strengthening of the dollar for certain partners and certain services, that creates what I would consider to be a risk we have to deal with,†Bogdan said at the Oslo event, according to Mehta’s article.
“We actually have to build those into our contracts to ensure that everybody is equitably dealt with on both ends of those contractual transactions.”
