F-35 C2D2

F-35B C2D2 falls under the Research, Development, Test & Evaluation (RDT&E) budget activity for the Navy. The specific goal of this program is to develop and field an affordable, highly common family of next-generation strike aircraft for the United States Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and international partner countries. This includes the development and testing for Block 4 and additional capabilities as part of the C2D2 acquisition strategy across the F-35 Air System. The program aims to provide incremental warfighting capability improvements to maintain joint air dominance against evolving threats and to minimize total air system life cycle costs through maximum commonality among the variants.

Additionally, the program seeks to conduct post Critical Design Review (CDR) design activities for Technology Refresh 3 (TR-3), which involves developing and delivering a TR-3 system through full flight-worthy certification and production readiness review. This effort will focus on developing and delivering a TR-3 system that incorporates new backplane technology, commercial operating systems, and modified middleware necessary to support Block 3F functionality and incorporation of all Block 4 capabilities. The program also includes nonrecurring engineering for the development, test, and certification of various subsystems to ensure long-term viability for future capabilities.

Overall, the objectives of this budget line item are centered around enhancing the capabilities of the F-35B aircraft through continuous development efforts as part of the C2D2 acquisition strategy, while also ensuring that technological advancements are integrated to support evolving mission requirements.