F-35A Lightning IIs
Posted on 01/27/2016 3:01:44 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The F-35 is an absolute disaster, and it needs to go. The scandals around it are legion.
The supersonic stealth plane called F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was supposed to be the greatest and best military plane the world has ever seen. While the United States' stealthy F-22 is an "air superiority" plane, ensuring the country's dominance over the skies, which is why exporting it is illegal, the F-35 was supposed to be able to do everything, and be the standard fighter-bomber of the U.S. and most countries with which the U.S. has friendly relations. It was supposed to be stealthy, to be able take off and land vertically, and to know everything about everything thanks to its amazing software and sensors. It can't do any of those things so far.
The program has cost $1.3 trillion so far. By comparison, the Apollo Program, which actually sent people to the moon, cost about $170 billion in 2005 dollars. The F-35 is literally the most expensive military project in history. By 2014, the program was $163 billion over budget, and seven years behind schedule.
From the beginning the F-35 was practically designed to be a horrendous boondoggle. First, there was the idea to make just one plane that would fit every service branch's needs. The Marines wanted a vertical takeoff and landing plane that could bomb things on the ground. The Navy wanted a carrier-borne plane. The Air Force wanted a plane that could shoot other planes.
The original "Joint Strike Fighter" program, from which the F-35 grew, started out in the early 1990s. The goal was to replace most of the country's Cold War era fighters and bombers, including the F-16, the F-18, the A-10, and the AV-8B. The problem with this approach is that it lead to design by committee
(Excerpt) Read more at theweek.com ...
There is a whole slew of them at Eglin.
When someone says I have a product, device, or machine that can do everything in a given specialty, that is a MAJOR RED FLAG. There has never been such a thing, and never will be.
It was funded as political payback and/or cronyism. Gov’t at its finest.
Where’s the Bombs and missiles and stuff hanging off their wings?
Those pics make them look so sterile..
Multipurpose is not always the best choice or path to pursue.
It’s nice to have options. made in America preferred.
The Bradley was designed by committee too.
The F35 was supposed to, among other things, eliminate the A10 Warthog, a close with support platform loved by the troops.
The Army told the Air Force that if they didn’t want them, that the Army did. The A10 phaseout was shelved. Plenty of great A10 in action against terrorists videos are all over the internet.
Sunk cost fallacy... Makes people and governments do horrible things
I am really happy to hear the Army’s going to be allowed to take on that airframe. Purpose built to protect ground forces and expeditionary units.
Nothing is less worthless than the Air Force. Talk about an armed force in desperate search of an actual mission to fill.
If u hang lots off stuff off of a stealthy aircraft, then it becomes an UNstealthy aircraft.
(33) F-16s crashed in the first 36 months of its initial operations @ Hill AFB.
The problem with almost every military project I’ve had experience with is that the military wants it to do everything. Take the Future Combat Systems family of vehicles. It was one of the most expensive disasters in our history. The military could not make a single decision because any decision automatically ruled out alternative options. Put the engine in the front and you limit some capabilities or make them more expensive. Put it in the rear of middle, the same thing happens. That’s just one of the technical details. There were dozens more, each of which would have limited what the vehicle could do. Shall it have treads or wheels? Should it have slab sides or sloped armor? And, then there was the idea that one vehicle base could be a main battle tank, a hospital vehicle and a command vehicle. Each of those is really a separate design.
I suspect the F-35 is the same disaster. Will it be a fighter or a bomber? Will it fly high and fast or low and slow? Make any of those decisions and you embark on a path that limits what it can do on other missions. Apparently no limitations are possible, so it gets very expensive.
..I am really happy to hear the Army’s going to be allowed to take on that airframe...
I don’t think the Army is getting them. But, the Army saying they wanted them apparently was enough for the AF to keep them.
One of the A10 videos on weaselzappers shows an A10 coming in low and slow over a desert oasis full of terrorists firing at Marines from several hundred yards away.
The cellphone recording the airstrike recorded one Marine telling his buddies as the A10 approached that they can give their rifles a rest because this will be over ‘real quick.’ And it was.
At the outbreak of Gulf War I in 1990, the Royal Air Force had 33 operational fighter squadrons. Today, the RAF fields 5 fighter squadrons and 3 fighter-bomber squadrons - a much smaller fighter fleet than the US Marine Corps by itself (4 fighter, 9 fighter/attack, 6 attack). Reality eventually struck the British right in the pocketbook. How long before we bankrupt ourselves with all of these gold-plated programs?
Looks like Boeing has been busy.
What few missiles and or bombs the plane is able to carry are stored internally for “stealth” of which this plane is just barely capable. Run of the mill F-16s eat it for lunch in a dog fight.
Is this the plane the Chinese have all the plans to?
weaselzappers appears to no longer exist.
It is almost a miracle when something as good, simple, and functional gets built like the A-10 Warthog.
-It is almost a miracle when something as good, simple, and functional gets built like the A-10 Warthog.-
Most likely that happened because the Air Force so badly did not want the weapon they drove Fairchild Republic out of business so they could stop buying them. Therefore, they probably did not interfere in the design because they hated it so much. (The Air Force wanted to spend its money on sexier, faster and higher flying planes. Supporting ground troops was not sexy or important to them.)
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