Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 03/20/2026 4:35:15 AM PDT by Fish Speaker
WASHINGTON — Starting this fall, all new F-35 Joint Strike Fighters delivered to the American military will come without radars, an issue that could stretch into the future and restrict the jets from participating in combat operations, Breaking Defense has learned.
In the best case, a new, redesigned radar could be ready as soon as next year, meaning only a handful of jets may be impacted. But if delays for the sensor stretch on, over a hundred jets may be delivered with a ballast where the new radar is supposed to be.
Any aircraft delivered without a radar are expected to remain airworthy, but will have to be reserved for training and cannot be used in combat, two sources familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Breaking Defense.
“They can still take delivery of the jet. They can still use it as a flyable asset, [but] obviously not a combat-coded asset. So they can still do limited training with it,” one of the sources told Breaking Defense.
At issue is an upgraded radar called the APG-85. It’s a different size than the current APG-81, so planes meant to carry it have a redesigned bulkhead. The Pentagon attempted to time the radar’s entry into an ongoing production batch of jets dubbed Lot 17, but delays with the radar mean those planes will be ready before the APG-85. Due to the different bulkhead, the APG-81 radar can’t be wedged into the spot for the APG-85.
(Excerpt) Read more at breakingdefense.com ...
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
Broken is an understatement and the F-35 is a perfect example of how bad it is. Never passed DT&E and never passed OT&E, requirements were dropped or changed just to move it along. It started in 1993, named JSF in 1996 and 20 years later it’s still a POS.
Why? Government is the problem. They don’t understand how to get a product.
Seems pretty straight forward, incomplete aircraft, no full payment, until it meets Specs.
There need to be courts-martial for some generals and admirals for allowing this FUBAR!!
Next they will accept them without wings or engines.
My goodness our keyboard warriors are busy on this one. I was the Program Manager on a $54 million dollar project. This type of problem is common when you’re coordinating multiple customers and multiple providers. Once the program gets into the millions of dollars and dozens of suppliers and downstream customers it gets complicated. I can assure you the program didn’t get this far and performed this well unless everyone in that process were competent and working together. We’ve seen the final product perform well. If you look at the criticisms of prior programs like the F4 or the F18 you’ll find identical claims of waste, fraud, abuse, failure to perform, etc. Yet those platforms performed adequately and some are still performing brilliantly.
I can’t recall which platform, I think it was the Super Hornet, the officer in charge was told in an interview it was going to be a turkey. He responded along the lines, “If it is, it will be a sleek, fast and good performing turkey.”
Occasionally, platforms underperform. They don’t make it into the inventory in large numbers because the various customers won’t accept them for their mission sets. Believe it or not, the military cares and so does Congress.
We live in this divisive, combative world where all sorts of rhetoric, some valid, some not, is thrown around like monkeys throwing feces. But having been on the inside and seen the good, the bad, and the ugly, I’m very confident that ninety percent of whatever negative information you see about this or that system is total hogwash.
Seems to be over reaction. If they are using for training they free up one for combat.
100%. I worked in Weapon Systems acquisition for a long time. It was awful. It often seemed like just a money game — money comes out of taxpayer pockets and goes to Civil Servants and Defense Contractors. The idea of actually acquiring a weapon system usually seemed like an after-thought.
It should be noted that we do end up with a lot of impressive hardware. So the system is not a complete joke. Good people work hard and do manage to build some good systems. But there is so much waste and fraud and abuse baked into the process; it desperately needs reform.
The customer in this case said, "I want the new and better radar." But they can't have it on the same timeline for the previous radar due to the required changes.
...my old ANG unit flew F-16s for many years but I thought touch-and-go procedures were prohibited for that A/C...never saw an F-16 do that....oddly enough, our unit flew F-105s for a number of years and we saw that monster of an aircraft do touch-and-goes...quite a sight...!!
https://www.amediaoperator.com/analysis/breaking-media-nears-20-still-sees-big-growth-potential/
Hmmmmm...
come on, Anduril, speed up your fighter development!
As a business owner I have been on the supply end of very large projects, but nothing along the lines of this.
You hit the nail n the head here, most people have no idea the amount of work the people who have to liaison and coordinate these complex systems have to deal with.
It certainly doesn’t end at the delivery of the project either, I just got done making a whole series of hot-form titanium dies for the F-16 which was developed in the early 70’s. The skill-set of machinists and tool designers that worked off of milar or vellum back then are almost nonexistent now. Hell, for many of the dies I made the forming companies went out of business and all the original tooling disappeared. (Hot form dies are made of expensive alloys and the scrap rate is very enticing for having them walk out the back door) We ended up salvaging parts out of the boneyards in the desert, double check they were a good fit on the airframes of current flying models, and reverse engineering them from those.
The whole system is from new to replacement so complex people think they type on a keyboard and whatever they want is there on a shelf ready to ship. It’s one of the reasons I like to deal with McMaster-Carr on supplies for my company here. Their phone app and website is hands down better than any other I have ever dealt with. If the people who run that company were put in charge of procurement and inventory for the military our streamlined logistics alone could save us billions annually.
Old saying - Them that can't, teach.
Not smart enough to teach? Become a "journalist".
Ignorance loves attention.
I know, broad brush, but not wrong. lol
Hmmm. Radar emits a huge signal. Most everybody has radar detectors. It is standard procedure when in combat to turn off all emitters because they give your position away. Turning a radar on instantly makes you a target! The new infra-red heat seeking sensors have changed the game.
With modern military technology did anyone think maybe the plane does not need radar? The data could be transmitted from satellites. Fighter jet radar signals can be detected using various technologies, including low-frequency radars that exploit longer wavelengths, making it easier to identify stealth aircraft. 🤔
Ha! Within 1 sec of each other.. I was first though. Lol
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.