Posted on 04/02/2018 3:49:25 AM PDT by maddog55
Jim Roche, then-Secretary of the Air Force, made an announcement on October 26, 2001, that all aviation enthusiasts had been waiting for: a winner had been picked to design and build the Joint Strike Fighter. The American people were assured the new jet would enter service in 2008 and be a high-performance replacement for the military’s aging airframes while only costing between $40 million and $50 million.
The F-35 has now entered an unprecedented seventeenth year of continuing redesign, test deficiencies, fixes, schedule slippages, and cost overruns. And it’s still not at the finish line. Numerous missteps along the way—from the fact that the two competing contractors, Lockheed Martin and Boeing, submitted “flyoff” planes that were crude and undeveloped “technology demonstrators” rather than following the better practice of submitting fully functional prototypes, to concurrent acquisition malpractice that has prevented design flaws from being discovered until after production models were built—have led to where we are now. According to the latest annual report from the Director, Operational Test & Evaluation (DOT&E), 263 “high priority” performance and safety deficiencies remain unresolved and unaddressed, and the developmental tests—essentially, the laboratory tests—are far from complete. If they complete the tests, more deficiencies will surely be found that must be addressed before the plane can safely carry our Airmen and women into combat.
(Excerpt) Read more at pogo.org ...
Uh, that's a dumb thing to say...the F117 didn't even look like an aerodynamic body...
Don’t get me wrong, I like the F22, but its an Air Force only design. Could never be beefed up to handle Navy/Marine Corp use from carriers or for missions requiring VSTOL.
I should of said no real country has lost any.
Garvin wrote: “One Size Fits All” worked with the F-4 Phantom (Navy, Marines and Air Force) though.”
There was a critical difference with the F-4. It was not developed as a “one size fits all”. It was originally developed by the USN. One set of requirements, one spec. The F-4 was later adopted by the USAF essentially unchanged.
These “one size fits all” aircraft are developed by a consortium of services with the intent of incorporating all their diverse requirements. The multiplicity of requirements and management structures results in complexity, increased costs, and program delays.
Like the F-22, the new oxygen system concerns me, but just about everything else is software. It will get there. Some of it is math related, I’ll bet. I personally think that the Air Force should buy a combination of A, B and C models. “Flexibility is the key to Air Power”. The C models would pick up some of the Air-to-Air slack.
There was a very good paper on how the Marine’s ruined the F-35 by insisting it had to have vertical take off capability. We really should pull the plug on the F-35.
B, Yes, Yes, Yes, and A.
>>But try landing it on a carrier<<
THAT explains why they were all yelling on the flight deck my last time out!
Google, Bing: F-35 Deployed. You might be surprised.
F-35 is junk :p
The F-16 C & D models cost $40 mill, and it was much better.
Outside of land based P3’s and P8’s the Navy no longer have carrier based fixed wing ASW assets with the last S3 Vikings being retired in 2009.
I think you forgot the /s tag...
they also have imaginative re-definitions of what “real countries” are.
I was getting out of the service when the F-22 (and F-23) were still called YF-22 (and 23)... I so longed to be able to see the F-22 in action :/
The mud hens (F-15E) were never counted in the 100-0 air to air victory figure because ATA is a secondary mission for them.
Boeing? As in the Boeing whose planes keep trying to kill their aircrews in the cockpits?
https://theaviationist.com/2017/12/06/the-israeli-f-35i-adir-declared-operational-so-whats-next/
Although it was just declared operational, it will take a few years to “completely” understand and exploit the stealth jet’s capabilities. Even more so, considered that the Israeli F-35s will have some domestic modifications and components provided by Israeli companies, that the IAF has not even begun the process of installing and integrating on the jet. Indeed, the IAF F-35As will be different from the “standard” F-35s, as they will employ national EW (Electronic Warfare) pods, weaponry, C4 systems etc.
Meanwhile the Israeli F-35s will probably see some action, validating the tactical procedures to be used by the new aircraft, fine tuning the ELINT capabilities of the “Adir” to detect, geolocate and classify enemy‘s new/upgraded systems, as well as testing the weapons system (and the various Israeli “customizations”) during real operations as part of “packages” that will likely include other special mission aircraft and EW (Electronic Warfare) support.
But only if really needed: the Israeli Air Force “legacy” aircraft have often shown their ability to operate freely in the Syrian airspace, using stand-off weaponry, without needing most of the fancy 5th generation features; therefore, it’s safe to assume the Israelis will commit their new aircraft if required by unique operational needs, as already happened in the past (in 1981, the first Israeli F-16s took part in Operation Opera, one of the most famous operations in Israeli Air Force history, one year after the first “Netz” aircraft was delivered and before all the F-16As were taken on charge by the IAF).
As we have already reported, IAF may also purchase some F-35Bs, the STOVL (Short Take Off Vertical Landing) version of the Joint Strike Fighter, that would allow the Israeli to have a squadron or two of multirole aircraft able to take off and land from austere/dispersed landing strips should Iran be able to wipe out IAF airbases with precision weapons.
So, Israel’s “journey” with the F-35 jet has just begun.
If external (non-stealth) carriage was the spec we could have bought upgraded Eagles, but it wasn’t. The spec was stealth carriage of 2 x 2,000 pound J weapons. You are going to need a really big shoe horn to get 2000 pounders into the bay on an F-22.
The F117 was the first of it’s kind, and it really didn’t last very long either. It was more of an X plane that got thrown into the mix. Also it was designed to do just one thing. The F-35 is supposed to be a Jack-Of-All-Trades and that has never worked and never will work.
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