Posted on 09/16/2015 5:22:59 AM PDT by maddog55
The tests used by the military on the latest breed of stealth jet, which was declared to be 'ready for combat' this spring, have been called into question by the Pentagon.
The F-35, which is one of the most highly anticipated advancements in military history has had more than its fair share of problems.
Now according to a report seen by the Washington Post, a top weapons tester at the Pentagon has declared the testing exercise to be 'so flawed that it 'was not an operational test … in either a formal or informal sense of the term.'
The report goes onto state the test 'did not — and could not — demonstrate' that the version of the F-35 that was evaluated 'is ready for real-world operational deployments, given the way the event was structured.'
The cutting-edge F-35, which is meant to be the most sophisticated jet ever, was embarrassingly outperformed by a 40-year-old F-16 jet in a dogfight in July.
The test pilot condemned the jet's performance at the time, claiming it performed so appallingly that he deemed it completely inappropriate for fighting other aircraft within visual range.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Does not surprise me. In my last assignment prior to retiring, our Prime Contractor (a major one) just wanted to run a slight variation of the same test over and over. Why? Because they knew they could pass it and wanted to get their all important award fee. They also knew they couldn’t pass the more rigorous tests which would show the System didn’t work.
Of course, our Management let them get away with this over and over again. It was almost like they had Stockholm Syndrome. The whole thing was just a farce.
This is also likely what happens when you value “jointness” over everything else. The F-22 was not joint, so it was killed. I know the F-35 has some (potentially) whiz-bang capabilities. But a fighter always has to be prepared to dogfight. We found that out in Vietnam.
It’s part of the radical transformation of America. Obama couldn’t be happier that our pilots have an aircraft that doesn’t work yet soaks the taxpayers for trillions. For now, the only thing this “cutting-edge F-35” is cutting is credibility. In the future, it will be the lives of our service men and women while greasing the palms of the defense contractors. I was never of fan of this aircraft from the very beginning.
This is one of the things President Trump would likely fix.
The only good thing about this is that if China is trying to replicate it, we know it won’t work.
Hopefully he will listen to the test pilot and not the Pentagon.
Correction: Not the Pentagon should have read whoever is being bought.
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