Joint Strike Fighter aims to soar

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is flying into this year’s budget wars on Capitol Hill with renewed lift under its wings from a lower government cost estimate and progress refining technical glitches.

Another boost for the long-delayed and over budget program — testimonials by pilots who say its flight control systems could usher in a new era of naval aviation, one in which landing by night on ships is a breeze, freeing training dollars and time.

But the Government Accountability Office warned in two recent reports that delays in development of critical software in the radar-evading aircraft are threatening the target date of July 2015 to declare it ready for combat.

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