By Anthony Capaccio August 24, 2016 A week after the Air Force declared its version of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 jet ready for limited combat operations, the Pentagon’s top tester warned that the U.S. military’s costliest weapons program is still riddled with deficiencies. “In fact the program is actually not on a path toward success but […]
By Dan Grazier & Mandy Smithberger September 9, 2016 The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is the most expensive procurement program in Pentagon history. It’s been plagued by schedule delays, gross cost overruns, and a slew of underwhelming performance reviews. Last month the Air Force declared its variant “ready for combat,” and most press reports lauded this […]
By Angelo Young September 14, 2016 The F-35, the Pentagon’s $1.1 trillion flying money pit, is (sort of) ready for duty The lemon has liftoff! After 20 years, the most expensive weapon in history is being put into service Twenty years since the Pentagon began taking bids from defense contractors, the F-35 fighter jet — […]
By Ryan Browne September 17, 2016 The US Air Force said Friday it has grounded 10 of its F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, just over a month after they were declared “combat ready.” The decision affecting the most expensive weapons system ever was made “due to the discovery of peeling and crumbling insulation in avionics cooling […]
September 16, 2016 The United States Air Force has halted production of nearly 60 of its F-35 fighter jets. It comes after the discovery of peeling and crumbling insulation in cooling lines inside some of the planes’ fuel tanks. Most of the jets affected were still being built, only 15 had been completed, with 10 being called “combat […]
September 12, 2016 Barely a week after the US Air Force declared Aug. 3 that its F-35A fighter was ready for combat, the Pentagon’s top weapons tester warned the aircraft is “not effective and not suitable across the required mission areas and against currently fielded threats.” In an Aug. 9 memo, the Pentagon’s Director of […]
By Sasha Goldstein September 22, 2016 An off-duty Vermont National Guard airman crashed a small private plane on a Lake Champlain island around noon Monday and left the scene with his passenger — another airman — apparently without calling police. Local authorities found out about the badly damaged Piper PA-11 on Savage Island only after the […]
By Staci DaSilva September 23, 2016 Grand Isle County Sheriff Ray Allen says he is waiting for a Federal Aviation Administration investigation to dictate whether federal investigators want the state of Vermont to press charges against two off-duty Air National Guardsmen. Sheriff Allen says 30 people, or more, were dispatched to Savage Island in Grand […]
September 23, 2016 An F-35A Joint Strike Fighter preparing for a training mission at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, caught fire just before takeoff, according to the Air Force. The Air Force F-35A Lightning II, assigned to the 56th Fighter Wing, experienced what the service said was a “ground emergency” at about 12:20 p.m. […]
By Associated Press September 23, 2016 Authorities say an F-35A fighter jet from Arizona caught fire during an engine start at an Air Force Base in Idaho. Officials at Luke Air Force Base in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale say a “ground emergency” occurred about 9:30 a.m. Friday as the aircraft was preparing for a […]