By Grace Elletson April 27, 2021 When the Covid-19 pandemic took hold in Vermont in April 2020, it forced Burlington and Winooski residents to self-isolate. And some who began working from home within the flight path of the F-35s became acquainted with a new experience. “During the beginning of lockdown and the stay-at-home order was […]
A film by Duane Peterson III & Patrick McCormack Jet Line is a short film that employs an anonymous hotline to elevate the voices beneath Vermont’s F-35 flight path, the first urban residents to live with one of the military’s most controversial weapons systems overhead. Tranquil scenes of unassuming neighborhoods near Burlington International Airport are […]
by Winslow Wheeler & Dan Grazier April 07, 2021 Official support for the F-35 program has quickly eroded during the first three months of 2021. In the waning days of the Trump administration, Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller called it a “piece of s..t.” The Air Force chief of staff, General Charles Brown Jr., […]
By Grace Elletson March 30, 2021 In the past few months, flyers around Burlington have invited people to chime in on an issue they can’t avoid: the noise made by the National Guard’s F-35 fighter jets. “Seeking F-35 comments,” the flyers and posters read. “All anonymous. Leave a voicemail.” They included a phone number that […]
By: Smriti Chaudhary November 24, 2020 The U.S. Air Force along with Sandia National Laboratories conducted the first-ever test with the B61-12 bomb featuring the F-35A fighter jet. A mock B61-12 was used to strike in the Nevada desert, from a height of about 10,500 feet, with “full-weapon systems demonstrations designed to increase confidence the […]
By The Editorial Board March 12, 2021 Last week, the new head of the House Armed Services Committee, Representative Adam Smith, said in an interview that the F-35 fighter jet was a “rathole” draining money. He said the Pentagon should consider whether to “cut its losses.” That promptly set off another round of groaning about […]
The Pentagon has spent about $1.7 trillion on a jet that Trump loved to talk about. But the military never got its money’s worth. MSNBC’s Brian Williams explains. Aired on 02/25/2021.
By David Axe February 23, 2021 The U.S. Air Force’s top officer wants the service to develop an affordable, lightweight fighter to replace hundreds of Cold War-vintage F-16s and complement a small fleet of sophisticated—but costly and unreliable—stealth fighters. The result would be a high-low mix of expensive “fifth-generation” F-22s and F-35s and inexpensive “fifth-generation-minus” […]
By Chris Hubbuch December 8,2020 A group opposed to basing F-35 fighter jets in Madison is suing the National Guard over its environmental review of construction to prepare Truax Field to host the new planes. Safe Skies Clean Water Wisconsin claims the National Guard Bureau violated federal environmental law by “failing to adequately study and […]
By Courtney Lamdin October 29, 2020 A sizable contribution from a Vermont utility will help soundproof buildings in three Chittenden County cities affected by F-35 jet noise, officials said Thursday. Vermont Gas Systems will kick in $550,000 for Burlington International Airport’s noise mitigation program in fiscal year 2021. The amount covers the required 10 percent […]