AGVs Bring Flexibility to Fighter Jet Manufacturing
Twenty years ago, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) created the Joint Advance Strike Technology (JAST) program. The goal of JAST was to develop aircraft, weapons and sensor technology that would replace disparate United States and United Kingdom aircraft with a single family of aircraft.
In late 1995, the DOD merged JAST with the Common Affordable Lightweight Fighter program and renamed it the Joint Strike Fighter program. One year later, the DOD contracted Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Inc. to each develop a prototype aircraft that demonstrated conventional and carrier takeoff and landing, as well as short takeoff and vertical landing.