Pentagon audit questions sustainability of F-35 programme
Pentagon’s audit found weak oversight, low readiness rates and continued payments within the F-35 programme, raising questions systemic risk for the US.
dod News
Analysis
Air
Logistics
Air
Logistics
GOA Report: F-35 Sustainment Costs to Reach $2 Trillion
U.S. Government Accountability Office (GOA) reports that F-35 aircraft sustainment costs to reach $2 trillion while operational availability decreases.
Air
Country
Defence Politics
Retired USAF Officer Advises Ukraine to Hire Jets and Pilots
A retired US Air Force (USAF) officer suggested that Ukraine hire fighter jets and pilots from the United States.
Air
LM to Design a 'Tailored' F-35 for an Export Customer
The Pentagon Awarded Lockheed Martin $ 49 million to support its work on an F-35 variant "tailored" for an undisclosed Foreign Military Sale customer.
Regional / Strategy
Pentagon: Russia cannot obstruct Ukraine’s NATO ambitions
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Kyiv to demonstrate his country's support to Ukraine.
Air
Bilateral Relations
GAO: The Cost of Removing Turkey from F-35: $108 million
The U.S. GAO examined the cost of the JSF program. The office claims that removing Turkey and establishing alternative suppliers will cost $108 million.
Global Defence Trend Brief
- 09:00 NATO pushes allies to fill US air and naval capability gaps - Washington is pressing European allies and Canada to provide more manned and unmanned aircraft plus...
- 09:00 AI-driven drone swarms rise as a new NATO planning priority - NATO officials are warning that AI-enabled drone swarms could reshape warfare within five years, pus...
- 09:00 Counter-drone demand expands beyond battlefields into critical infrastructure - Growing drone incursions around airports, ports, oil facilities and data centres are accelerating de...
- 09:00 Europe’s loyal wingman race becomes a core airpower trend - Collaborative combat aircraft took centre stage at Berlin Airshow 2026 as European companies and air...
- 09:00 Ukraine’s drone combat know-how is becoming an export asset in Asia - Ukrainian drone firms are marketing battlefield-proven systems and swarm concepts in Japan, Taiwan a...
- 09:00 NATO accelerates live testing of counter-drone technologies - Alliance members and industry partners are expanding field trials of drone detection and interceptio...
- 09:00 Hypersonic threats keep driving demand for persistent tracking networks - The spread of hypersonic weapons continues to push Western defence planners toward integrated radar...
- 09:00 Military space resilience shifts toward larger distributed constellations - Armed forces are increasingly favouring proliferated satellite constellations over a small number of...
- 09:00 Autonomous maritime systems gain importance in surveillance and strike planning - Navies are broadening interest in autonomous surface and underwater systems for persistent ISR, infr...
- 09:00 Industrial surge capacity is becoming a decisive defence metric - Across missiles, drones and air defence, governments are placing more weight on production scalabili...
