Capt. Tim Moore, whose office is charged with overseeing the modernization, said the Navy plans to use a “crawl phase” to install most of the upgrades and test them before working on the rest of the destroyer fleet.
Slovakia is set to become the first European operator of the Block 70-configured jets, initially agreeing to a 14 aircraft order for €1.58 billion ($1.8 billion) in December 2018.
“Each of the services nominated capabilities for consideration in the selection process, based on a warfighter-centric set of criteria,” a Pentagon spokesman told Breaking Defense.
Days after the US killed a suspected militant leader in Baghdad, Iraq’s prime minister called for a “quick” timeline for US and coalition forces to leave.
Addressing a crowd of Navy sailors, officers and industry at the Surface Navy Association’s annual event, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti emphasized a clear focus for the fleet: warfighting.
For months Beijing boycotted military discussions, raising fears at the Pentagon that a miscommunication could lead to conflict.