3. Technological Disaster

By: Valerie Insinna for Defense News, Jun. 12, 2019 WASHINGTON — Over the past several years, U.S. Defense Department leaders have gone from citing technical problems as their biggest concern for the F-35 program to bemoaning the expense of buying and sustaining the aircraft. But the reality may be worse. According to documents exclusively obtained by Defense News, the F-35 […]

By: Charles P. Pierce for Esquire, Jun. 12, 2019 One of our regular features here at the shebeen is checking out the latest on the F-35, a.k.a. the money pit in the sky, a.k.a. The Flying Swiss Army Knife. (In addition, the president* may believe that it is actually invisible, like Wonder Woman’s plane.) Usually, […]

This document comes from the United Stated Government Accountability Office, and was published in April 2019. What GAO Found F-35 aircraft performance is falling short of warfighter requirements—that is, aircraft cannot perform as many missions or fly as often as required. Figure: F-35 Fleet Aircraft Performance, May 2018—November 2018 This lower-than-desired aircraft performance is due […]

By Tokyo (AFP) for Space Daily, June 4, 2019 Japan called off its search for an F-35A on Tuesday, almost two months after the stealth jet crashed into the sea sparking a scramble to recover the pilot and secrets onboard. Defence Minister Takeshi Iwaya told reporters the search had been halted but that his teams […]

By: Nick Visser for Huffpost, Mar. 21, 2019 Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan is under investigation by the Pentagon’s inspector general over ties to his former employer, the aerospace juggernaut Boeing. The Defense Department said Wednesday it had opened an ethics investigation into complaints that allege Shanahan regularly touted Boeing over other defense contractors, including […]

By: “Task and Purpose” for The National Interest, Mar. 20, 2019 In February, the commander of the U.S. Naval Air Forces  proclaimed that the Navy’s F-35C Joint Strike Fighter was “ready for operations, ready for combat and ready to win” — even though the Navy’s own testing data says otherwise. Testing data  obtained by the Project On Government Oversight (POGO)  indicates that […]

By: Dave Majumdar for The National Interest, published Feb. 14, 2019 he F-35 is a case of massive over ambition to develop one base airframe that can be adapted to replace half-dozen specialized jets. The result is an expensive jack-of-all-trades, but a master of none. The United States has built many great fighters over the […]

Editor’s note: This commentary is by Richard Czaplinski on behalf of the members of the Will Miller Green Mountain Veterans For Peace, Chapter 57. Czaplinski, of Warren, is a U.S. Navy veteran and the president of the group. In all the controversy and discussion about the F-35s coming to Burlington (jobs, noise, dangers to surrounding […]