Fourteen CH-47-ER Chinooks, destined principally for use by British special forces, will be delivered to the Royal Air Force under the terms of the deal.
George Rumford, director of the Test Resource Management Center, told lawmakers this week the effort to build a new high-speed track is in the study phase.
The Pentagon stopped accepting deliveries of the newest F-35 Joint Strike Fighters in summer 2023 as software problems snarled the jets' latest upgrades.
The V-22 is allowed to fly again, and the services will each implement their own training and maintenance protocols to get the fleet back to operations.
AFRL hopes building drones on a common chassis structure, the way the auto industry builds cars, will let it turn out aircraft cheaper and more quickly.
If Boeing ends up acquiring Spirit, it would bring the aircraft component manufacturer back under Boeing's wing for the first time in nearly two decades.