Posted on 10/02/2015 1:05:36 PM PDT by maddog55
It's been a while since we checked in on the F-35, the Flying Swiss Army Knife, which may be a floor wax or a dessert topping, but which sure as hell isn't an viable aircraft, but is one of the epic money pits of all time, even by Pentagon standards, which are higher than the plane thus far has been able to get off the ground. How are things going, anyway?
For 10 days in May off the coast of Virginia, a half dozen F-35 fighter jets tested their capabilities under what military officials called real world combat conditions. The Pentagon was trying to see if the Marine Corps' version of the next-generation fighter plane-its most expensive weapons project ever-was ready for battle. In July, after analyzing the test results, Marine Commandant General Joseph Dunsford triumphantly declared that it was.
Now even Dunsford's piece of good news is in doubt. A scathing memo written by J. Michael Gilmore, the Pentagon official who oversees operational testing and evaluations of new weapons systems, dismissed Dunsford's declaration, saying the conditions of the test hardly simulated real-world combat. The planes, for example, carried no missiles or bombs during the evaluation and landed on a deck that had been cleared of other aircraft. As a result, Gilmore wrote, the test "did not-and could not demonstrate" that the war plane "is operationally effective or suitable for use in any type of limited combat operation or that it is ready for real-world operational deployments."
(Excerpt) Read more at esquire.com ...
One aircraft that can be all things for all situations will be heavy, complicated and very, very expensive........................Like putting 10 pounds of sugar in a 5 pound sack.................
Imagine if the money went to say...the F-22.
I wonder what the average return on investment is for defense contractors buying US senators, congressmen and service men?
They get back, what, $1,000 for every dollar spent?
How many modified F/A-18’s or F-22’s could we have built for the price of the F-35 MONEY PIT? The F-35 is just another conspiracy to SABOTAGE OUR MILITARY!
Then the F-22 would have been overburdened and half the plane it should be with the additional roles required. Multi-role is a nice concept, but multiple types of mission specific aircraft and pilots are the only things that deliver when rubber meets road.
Thankfully, the tooling for the F-22 was saved—not destroyed. The Raptor production line can be re-opened (according to Lockheed Martin) for $1 billion. Cost per unit would be comparable to what we paid in the initial production run, with inflation factored in.
The F-35 is a 5th generation fighter/bomber with a multi service purpose role.
It is an attack PLATFORM for engaging targets at a long distance.
It was never designed to be a dog fighter.
I think it’s a pretty cool system, except for the price.
It’s a POS and a very expensive one.
The F-35 was designed to do the job the F119 stealth fighter did - only any time , any place, any weather.
The F-119 was our silver bullet but it could barely maneuver, was pretty much defenseless, and could operate at night - preferably in pitch dark.
Our militarily success for the last 30 years was contingent upon the F-119 taking out enemy air defense , command and control, leadership and other high value targets.
The F-119 is the main reason we ran through Iraq twice and quite a few other operations and their stealth and precision weaponry pretty much destroyed our opponents ability to effectively fight back and won the war in the first 5 minutes of action.
Our losses would have serious if not for the F-119.
The F-35 is a supersonic ground attack plane with stealth and countermeasures that the F-119 could never even dream of and it is at rough parity with the most agile fighter out there - the F-16.
The only place the F-35 is at a disadvantage to the F-16 is in a one on one dogfight and it's a close thing even then.
More significantly, the close in one on one is just about the only chance an F-16 has to kill an F-35 with any currently existing weapons - a point few take into consideration.
An F-35 can kill just about anything out there before the enemy even knows it's at threat, much less under attack.
The primary limitation of the F-35 is it's short combat radius without aerial resupply of fuel. It s big one that will haunt he F-35 throughout it's service life.
The could ever replace the F-22 and it was never even intended to be a fighter at all.
It was intended to be a radically upgraded F-119 produced in large numbers (we never had more than 50 F-119) that could fight it's way onto and out of a target with minimal disadvantage to a dedicated air superiority fighter.
It will be a glorious day when conservatives realize the DOD budget is nothing but welfare for rich old white guys
I assume you mean the F-117.
My bad.
I've been kind of preoccupied with the P&W 117 engine for the recent past and my dylexia got the better of me.
It's actually not the first time I've had that particular bit of brain fade.
Kind of embarrassing but compared to calling the F117 engine the F119 - not so much. Ask me how I know ....
“Kind of embarrassing but compared to calling the F117 engine the F119 - not so much. Ask me how I know ....”
And the confusion may have been compounded by the fact that F-119 is the AF designation for the engine on the F-22!
So, how do you know ...?
As a former Lockheed-Martian employee, I can attest to the culture of management that sticks it to the client, continues to under-perform, and general lack of ethics. Furthermore, they showed great disdain for the actual technicians that do the work, while promoting those that are less qualified but easy on the eyes (read: high heels). I walked the hell off a contract because of their lazy, fat-a$$ managers could care less about winning a fight: it was all about the money.
Where does government oversight fit it? The get co-opted by LM with the promise of a job when they leave military service.
They should be the subject of a RICO investigation for fraud: confiscate and sell off all of the company's assets. Bunch of cockroaches.
It will be several years before it is fully combat capable, and will be inferior to ANY 4 or 5 gen aircraft in air-to-air, and terrible bang for the buck in other tasks.
Imagine your son or grandson in a foxhole, needing air support....would you want this POS watching over him, or an A-10...or an F-16....or a spad....or a Piper Cub armed with 12 Ga buckshot.
My guess would be you’re a Boeing employee or just drinking the koolaid.
The aircraft performs poorly period in every aspect it was designed for. Read some of the test pilots comments “after they left the program”. When their on the program everything is rose colored glasses.
It’s way behind schedule and has been plagued with major problems.
Yeah because I always get my aerospace analysis from ‘esquire’. *snort*
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