Stealth Saga #10

The South Korean Foreign Affairs Secretary was forced to resign over the KF-X debacle. Boeing smells opportunity over the mess.  Lockheed is stating the tech transfer decisions are out of its hands and reaffirms its offsets to South Korea for procuring the F-35.

Eurojet and General Electric are battling over who will be supplying the engine for the KF-X fighter.

When WILL the Long Range Strike Bomber be announced?  Soon? According to LaPlante, VERY soon and the aircraft will be very impressive.  Northrop told aviation week in days (paywall, sorry). 

Related news in the Flight Global piece on the above is Lockheed/Boeing's bid is very strategic for its pricing.  I worry they are low balling the price.  Stupid.  However, if the rumors are true, both demonstrators for the LRS-B are flying and it'd be 'relatively' easy for the US Air Force to restart with the losing company.

The electoral win for Canada's Liberals probably means their withdrawal from the F-35 program for the Canadian armed forces (here, too).  McCain is stating the American F-35 buy will have to be cut back. The Canadian exit could raise the price of the F-35 by a million dollars each since Canada was going to buy 65 aircraft.  And the Canadian exit may signal wide review of the Canadian air forces.

The F-35's helmet will be reduced in weight to improve ejection safety.  Martin-Baker will cover the costs of the F-35 ejection seat fix.

 The F-35 customers are discussing and prioritizing the upgrades to the F-35 for the future.