REALLY?
Lockheed is supposed to make sure work is "not up to snuff" ? ? ?
The concept is that stealth trumps range, firepower and maneuverability. But stealth is affected by computing power and radar networking. Computing power is increasing so rapidly that this short range, under powered poorly armed plane will have a short useful lifespan when and if they do get it right.
The F-35(like the “A-12”) IS A First Class PIECE OF LOCKHEED MARTIN SHIT!
Such is the nature of airplanes. The cost of leading edge technology is constant change and improvement either to make the system better or to deal with surprises the designers didn't foresee.
Misleading headline...
They should say the same about Obamacare, but they won’t
You'll also end up with a platform that may have an unseen flaw that an enemy can can exploit to eliminate ALL branches' ability to fight and survive.
Whatever happened to the F-22? ....................
And I keep hearing that we shouldn’t be cutting the Defense Budget. This is what happens when you have more money than you need. You tolerate things like this.
I’ve long felt the flaws in the F-35 stem from the concept that the airframe could be adapted to be all things to all people. McNamara tried this with the F-111. He learned (eventually) that trying to make a plane that can do everything for everyone, especially in the hopes of saving costs usually ends up with a design that always costs far more than expected, and also usually results up in a compromise design that doesn’t excel in any particular area.
All in MHO, of course.
Its easy to say we aren’t paying for mistakes but this is a CPIF contract so, yes we are paying for mistakes. Ordering fewer jets doesn’t really punish LM so much as it punishes tax payers. It just means the cost per plane goes up, so we pay the same or higher total contract price for fewer units. It really just makes it harder to justify the increasing bill and hastening the death spiral.
well, thank goodness we have the F-22 ...
oh wait...
thx 0bama
more than a decade, the contest between boeing (boing!) and mcd-douglas was back in the late 90s. so they were working on the prototypes a few years before that late-90s contest date.
F 111 redux. Trying to make 1 platform all things to all services.
We never learn.
Unfortunately, too many so-called "budget hawks" think the Pentagon is the one government entity off-limits for audits, criticism, reform, cuts, etc.
The F-35 is going to make the F-111 look brilliant by comparison.
We TAXPAYERS are stuck, not DoD. They got paid off and paid well as did the contractors. Everyone but us got something out of this F-35 scam.
It's like deja vu all over again.
They've been made to follow the same political path that doomed the Dornier Do 335 with constantly changing requirements forcing redesign after redesign to meet each new requirement.
The Dornier Do 335 was an amazing airplane, possibly one of the finest piston aircraft ever built, but it, like the F-35, was doomed by the ever changing whims of clueless politicians spending other people's money.
The ATF (for example) started with a Request For Information (RFI) in 1981 just 5 years after the F-15 was introduced to line units.
In 1983 study contracts were awarded.
In 1986 Request For Proposals went out.
In 1986 Lockheed and Northrup were selected to further develop and test their designs.
They made their maiden flights in 1990, and the YF-22 won in late 1991.
The first flight of the F-22 was in 1997, and entered operational service in 2005
Even to this day the F-22 has bugs in it... It’s the price of complexity and a limited production run.
With the F-35 it’s because of everyone wanting newer and better stuff added on to an airframe that’s compromised to suit too many roles.
A majority of the cost overruns and delays can be traced back to les aspins decision to force the Air Force, Navy, and Marines to use a common airframe.
Despite people hyping technology as the biggest baddest most advanced thing, technology seldom lives us to its billing —
Anyone remember the F-111 Aardvark, the be all, do everything plane of the 70s for all the services? I believe it was referred to as the "Flying Edsel". In the end none wanted it, and the Air Force was the only one to buy it - forced by congress to do so.
Now in the 21st Century, the F-35 is playing this role. The F-35 is supposed to fill all the needs of all the services.