It appears that the program executive officer for the JSF, General David Heinz, of the is unamused by Boeing’s marketing of the upgraded aircraft, which notes that it, “as all the stealth that has been approved for export by the U.S. government,” which implies that the export variants of the JSF will be less stealthy than than the version fielded by US forces.

I think that the general misses the point, it was not a shot at the JSF, but rather a shot at elements in the Pentagon who might want to restrict its export in order to further boost the F-35.

In the meantime, it does appear that Boeing is looking to minimize its exposure in the development process, as it’s aggressively looking for development partners, while it leaves the start of aircraft development on pause, pending a review of the “business case.”

They don’t want to invest in a product that no one will buy, and so they are slipping the flight test dates by 6 months.