Twenty years ago, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) created the Joint Advance Strike Technology (JAST) program. The goal of JAST was to develop aircraft, weapons and sensor technology that would replace disparate United States and United Kingdom aircraft with a single family of aircraft.

SAMLESBURY, UK—BAE Systems has switched on a new assembly line here that will be integral to the assembly of F-35 fighter jets. The line will boost production from one jet per week to one per day by 2016.