
The Senate Appropriations Committee's draft fiscal 2022 defense funding bill recommends cutting nearly $566 million from the Pentagon's almost $2 billion request for Continuous Capability Development and Delivery (C2D2) for the Lockheed Martin [LMT] F-35 fighter. Under C2D2, F-35s are expected to receive software updates every six months. Begun in 2018, C2D2 has included the development of Block 4 software to prepare the aircraft to counter area denial by adversaries, Technology Refresh-3 updates, and making F-35s capable of carrying conventional…