Sputnik:
Speaking to lawmakers from the Senate appropriations subcommittee on defense this week, MDA director Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves said that pending funding for a ballistic missile defense interceptor, the F-35 would gain the capability to shoot down enemy strategic missiles.
Greaves noted that the new capability for the F-35 would be “if not a game changer, then a significant contributor to future ballistic missile defense.” According to the MDA head, his agency sees the F-35 as one alternative to the “classic missile defense system” such as the Patriot, THAAD or the US’s Ground-Based Interceptor system.
F-35 developer and manufacturer Lockheed Martin has been promoting the plane as a possible nuke interceptor for years, but officials at the Pentagon previously declined to offer a timeframe on how long it would take to make this happen, or its cost…
