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.

PALMDALE, CA—Northrop Grumman Corp. has delivered the first F-35 center fuselage produced by its Integrated Assembly Line (IAL). The IAL maximizes robotics and automation, providing additional capacity and assembly capability while meeting engineering tolerances that are not easily achieved using manual methods.