U.S. Air Force chief Gen. Norton Schwartz is considerably "more optimistic" than he was this spring about the future of the F-35 Lightning II program given the significant progress being made on the plane's test program.
"I am more confident than I was, to be sure," about the F-35A - the Joint Strike Fighter version his service will fly - due to a recent string of testing successes with the jet, Schwartz said during an Aug. 4 meeting with the editorial staff of Defense News and Air Force Times.
The four-star's confidence in the embattled program has been boosted because the plane is considerably ahead of its flight test schedule for this year. Furthermore, it hasn't had a single structural failure during stress testing and has not experienced the "software reboot" problems that plagued the F-22 Raptor at a similar phase in its development, said Schwartz.