Dallas Lockheed Martin has completed about 70% of tooling to build the first of two X-35 Joint Strike Fighter demonstrator aircraft, and conducted its second Interim Program Review late last month with U.S. and foreign officials. David J. Wheaton, vice president and program manager for the JSF team, said the review was “very successful” and indicated that the program is “on schedule, within budget and technically strong.”

Washington TRW Inc. has beat Alliant Techsystems for a lucrative contract to take over management of the U.S. Air Force’s arsenal of ICBMs and oversee upgrades to the Minuteman 3 system. If all options are exercised, TRW will be paid $3.4 billion over a period that runs through 2012.

SYDNEY Boeing is refining customer options on its 777-200X and -300X models, which the company believes will start the fragmentation of the Pacific market in the same way as the Airbus A300 and Boeing 767 did on Atlantic routes 15 years ago.