Happy New Year.
PING!
Posted on 12/31/2014 7:19:35 PM PST by thetallguy24
At this point, it's not even funny how much the Pentagon has screwed up the development of its new stealth fighter jet, the F-35. But the latest report that the jet's 25mm cannon won't be operational until 2019 at the earliest is just laughable. Even more laughable is that it probably doesn't even need the gun to begin with.
Unnamed Air Force officials revealed the bad news in a Daily Beast story about the F-35. Apparently the software that will power the four-barreled rotary cannon on the Air Force version of the jet, the F-35A, won't be ready for at least four more years. The Navy and Marine Corps version use a different cannon, but it'll also be years before the software's ready for those guns.
The real kicker here is that the gun is probably just dead weight (read: a waste of taxpayer dollars) anyways. The F-35A's cannon can fire 3,300 rounds per minute but can only hold 180 rounds. "I would be lying if I said there exists any plausible tactical air-to-air scenario where the F-35 will need to employ the gun," one senior Air Force official told the Daily Beast. "Personally, I just don't see it ever happening and think they should have saved the weight [by getting rid of the gun altogether]."
The jet, which is also known as the Joint Strike Fighter, is already the most expensive weapon in American history. It's expected to cost the Pentagon well over $1 trillion over the next 50 years. And little hiccups like this only add more taxpayer dollars to that price tag. [Daily Beast]
The only American pilots that fought in that style, were United States Army pilots.
Active Duty ping.
One would hope that Cobra’s aircraft design arm would figure out limiters on gun positions to avoid friendly fire accidents.
Or maybe that would be a way advancement would work, take out the lead pilot and take over.
The F-16 holds the spent casings so nothing but bulllet falls from the sky.
Geez...I hope they don’t give F 22’s or F 35’s to the cops.
Happy New Year.
PING!
“OK, work with me on this one. A little sliding door in the canopy so the pilot can draw his sidearm, stick it out, and blow away the enemy aircraft with blazing six-gun action. I’ll bet it would work in the movies.”
Everything you said except I want a 45 ACP.
England will have an aircraft carrier but no planes (waiting for the F-35). Canada will have subs but no torpedoes. The United States of America who defeated the Germans and Japanese in WW2 and kept another world war from breaking out since will build an aircraft with a gun that cannot be fired till 2019. 4+ years from now..... expect delays. Wiki excerpt: original plan to fit the F-35 with only two air-to-air missiles (internally). Ejection seat may fail, causing pilot fatality. (maybe we should buy the Russian ones). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MQk1yvsoKY
So no gun and just 2 missiles. Add external and lose all stealth. Wiki excerpt: The cannon is mounted internally with 182 rounds for the F-35A or in an external pod with 220 rounds for the F-35B and F-35C (hopefully the enemy will fly straight and level)
The development contract for the F-35 was signed in November 1996. The F-35 had it’s first flight in 2006... 10 years! No firing of it’s gun till 2019. Total 23 years!!!
WW2 for the USA was from 1941 to 1945.... 4 years. Ships, planes, tanks, all kinds of weapons and everything else needed to defeat the enemies on opposite sides of the planet. Today we cannot make an aircraft that has a gun that can be fired after 23 years of development.
What country have we become?
That’ll work but you gotta hold it ghetto style and grab yer crotch with the other hand.
Recall the Navy’s A-12 cancelled in 1991 due to cost over-runs.
GD just defaulted on their fixed price contracts and Cheney said no to their demands for more $$$.
The Army did use the 45 pistol in aerial combat.
That’s good but I was talking about the A-10.
LOL
I’ll meet you half way on that.
BTW-
Happy New Year to you Bill and everyone else here. We made it through another one.
Thank you for this.
In other words, I agree with you.
The worst casings dropping out of the sky are those from parachute flares. IIRC, they are about 4” OD and 3 feet long. We did an Op sealing off the Batangan Peninsula and pushing out to the end. C-130’s were dropping parachute flares all night, every night.
We’d wake up in the morning to find the outside canisters of the flares buried a foot deep into the paddy mud. My foxhole for perimeter watch was set in front of a huge boulder. We’d rotate watch every 2 hours. About 2am when another Marine was on watch, one of those canisters hit the boulder right behind him. As you can imagine, he nearly filled his britches! If it had hit him, it would have killed him!
I don’t work on A-10’s. I am unsure.
WOW ,it has a gun ,Obama’s people must have screwed up somewhere
A country that takes more time to build a non-functioning website for health insurance than it did to defeat Germany, Italy and Japan.
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