Weapons & Technologies

The Government Accountability Office released two companion studies dated April 25 that paint a stark picture of the F-35’s technical health and budget outlook. The auditors describe a fighter still haunted by fresh defects even as procurement ramps up. They note that a jammed main fuel-throttle valve can lock the engine at full power and fling the jet forward until the pilot shuts everything down. Test crews first spotted the surge during carrier workups in late 2017, and engineers have yet to seal the fix.

Singapore just raised its air-watch bar one more notch. The Republic of Singapore Air Force states its G550 Airborne Early Warning squadron has hit full ops after a tough decade of tweaks, test hops and long simulator nights. The slim jets shove aside the old E-2C Hawkeyes, giving crews fresh eyes across both island airspace and wider straits. Analysts mark the move as a key stone in the city-state’s layered defence, saying it shrinks the gap between first alarm and scramble.

A heavy-lift vessel slipped into the port of Świnoujście late on 21 November. Its deck held twenty-six U.S.-made M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks, fresh olive paint still matte from the Atlantic crossing. Below deck lay nine M88A2 Hercules armored recovery vehicles, pallets of spares, and crates of consumables. Dockworkers rolled the tanks onto low-loaders through the night while military police kept the quayside clear. At sunrise rail wagons stood ready for the long haul south to Żagań, where the 18th Mechanised Division will absorb the new armor.