A lot of attention has understand­ably accrued to the US Department of Defense’s FY 2023 request for 61 F-35s, 33 (15 As, 5 Bs, and 13 Cs) be­low the number previously projected for that year. Let’s talk about that just a little bit. First, the Department of Defense has been accused of using the F-35 program as a source for funding other priorities. There’s some reason to be­lieve that’s true. But we don’t believe that’s what’s at work here.

Recent actions by Rolls-Royce suggest that it is moving forward in its effort to materially reposition the company and return it to long-term profitability. Several factors had drastically impacted demand for Rolls-Royce products and services, causing a substantial decline in company revenues.

The pandemic driven decline in commercial aerospace had a dramatic impact on Safran’s operations and financial performance. The pandemic and delivery suspension of the 737 MAX cut revenues by almost one-third in 2020. By the close of 2021 total company revenues declined even further, resulting in a 38% drop from pre-pandemic 2019 to end of year 2021.

Teal Group Corp.’s Senior Analyst Dr. David L. Rockwell has updated all F-35 JSF (Joint Strike Fighter) sensor programs in Teal’s Military Electronics Briefing, including detailed analysis based on the most recent DoD sources and documents: January 2022’s Director of OT&E report, the FY23 DoD budget released in April 2022, the GAO’s annual F-35 report publicly released on 25 April 2022, and the Congressional Research Service (CRS) report updated on 2 May 2022. The MEB includes three reports discussing the major F-35 sensor systems for EO/IR, Radar, and Electronic Warfare/SIGINT.

These three major programs will each be the largest military electronics program ever in their respective areas. The F-35 APG-81 radar and MIRFS avionics systems may also be the largest military electronics program of all time. Combined, these three reports in the MEB will account for a total of at least $67.4 billion of RDT&E and procurement funding over the next ten years – worth more than $7.5 billion annually beginning in the middle of this decade. And the subcontracting opportunities will be huge.