[lbryce]

This is not nearly as tragic as it sounds.

“As a precautionary measure, the Air Force has decided to temporarily suspend all F-35A operations until it is determined that flights can resume safely,” Waggoner said, noting that such practice is common in aviation. “It ensures the safety of our crews and our aircraft so we can determine there is no fleet-wide issue that needs to be addressed."

The F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO), which manages the roughly $400 billion Joint Strike Fighter program for Air Force, Navy and Marines, does not consider the F-35 to be formally grounded however. “No F-35s have been grounded. Air worthiness authorities did not direct a fleet stand down,” said Kyra Hawn, a spokeswoman for the F-35 program office in an emailed statement. “We expect flights to resume in the coming week.”

The fact that the F-35 JPO has not directed the F-35 fleet be formally grounded suggests that the fire might be traceable to a one-off failure rather than a fundamental design defect.

The F-35 JPO could provide no additional information on what caused the F-35 to catch on fire. Nor would they confirm the extent of the damage to the jet. “We will not speculate on cause of the fire while the investigation is underway,” Hawn said.

The U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps, which also fly their own versions of the F-35, have not suspended their flying operations.

There are currently 104 F-35 in the Pentagon’s arsenal — split between Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps variants, according to Lockheed.

[piytar]

The F-22 (which Obama cancelled) was a superior air to air combat plane. So was the Super Hornet. Once those cleared the skies, flying busses could take care of ground duty.

What a waste of money and resources...

[867V309]

This is not nearly as tragic as it sounds.

Good news! Only one percent of the fleet has been lost without ever engaging the enemy.

[Rodamala]

For crying out loud just buy some F-15s.

[Fungi]

How is it that suddenly almost everything is going awry? The US cannot do anything right—from jets, to Iraq, to the southern border, to Obamacare, to lost e-mails, to wind power, to pipelines, to ......... you name it. What is going on? We seem to be on a death spiral.

[ClearCase_guy]

The F-35 was originally intended to be operational

Well, that was the plan, but the requirements just kept creeping ...

[kiryandil]

The F-35 JPO could provide no additional information on what caused the F-35 to catch on fire.

I was reading that they intentionally leak fuel while they're on the ground. It's part of the aircraft design.

[Bryan24]

IMO, the United States Air Force needs the following combat force:

100 B2 Spirit Bombers For strategic, Precision bombing

500 F22 Lightning Air Superiority Fighters to clear and hold the sky over contested areas.

500 F16 Fighting Falcon Multi-Role Fighter Bombers for light bombing, precision ground attack and air combat.

500 A10 Warthog Ground Attack Aircraft for ground support of land forces.

[UCANSEE2]

"Many of the problems stem from the fact that the Pentagon decided to design, built, test and fly the F-35 all at the same time rather than sequentially like a normal program. "

uh... is it just me or is this statement just a bit a bit too hard to believe ?

F-35 pre-design flight test.

[Citizen Zed]

Are they using that biodiesel fuel?

[Jet Jaguar]

Active Duty ping.

[Daaave]

Here's a February 21, 2013 article with publicly announced F-35 groundings up to that date.

F-35 Grounded After New F-135 Engine Problems

[clearcarbon]

"The original idea to replace different combat aircraft with a single design has resulted in the most expensive defense program in the history of mankind, with the price tag ballooning from $220 billion to about $400 billion."

I thought the lesson learned from the F-111 program was not to do that.

[MHalblaub]

The grounding is no threat to the national security due to the fact F-35 has still NO initial operation capability (IOC). In other words a test aircraft is grounded.