By Andrew Cockburn April 8, 2022 It is now generally acknowledged that the F-35 fighter stands tall in the pantheon of U.S. weapons-buying disasters, a mélange of waste, deceit, and mindless incompetence. According to the latest report from the Pentagon’s Director of Test and Evaluation, itself a muted document, the plane has at least […]
BY SEAN MCFATE March 11, 2021 It’s official: The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is a “rathole” of taxpayer money, something defense experts already knew — at least those without dubious ties to the military industrial blob. Now the House Armed Services Committee chairman has joined the ranks of the outraged, saying that when he thinks […]
By Andrew Chuter Nov 17, 2021 LONDON – A British F-35B combat jet based on the new Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth has crashed into the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the Ministry of Defence confirmed Nov. 17. The pilot ejected and has been picked up and returned safely to the carrier. The F-35B short-take-off, […]
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: Valerie Insinna June 25,2020 WASHINGTON — The most widely used variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is currently unable to fly in thunderstorms after the discovery of damage to one of the systems it uses to protect itself from lightning, its prime contractor Lockheed Martin said Wednesday. To safely fly in conditions where lightning […]
By Ryan Pickrell June 9, 2020 An F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter’s landing gear collapsed after it landed at Hill Air Force Base following a routine training flight Monday. The pilot made it out and is currently being medically evaluated, Air Force Times reported, citing a statement from the base. The latest incident involving […]
By Aidan Quigley May 27, 2020 The Vermont National Guard is continuing F-35 flights after one of the stealth aircraft crashed in Florida earlier this month. The F-35 fighter jet crashed at the Eglin Air Force Base May 19 during a routine training flight, according to an Air Force statement. The pilot ejected from the […]
By: Sebasitan Sprenger, Sept. 29, 2019 COLOGNE, Germany — In the illustrious history of the F-35 fighter jet, add a pony farm outside Berlin as the place where one company claims the plane’s stealth cover was blown. The story that follows is a snapshot in the cat-and-mouse game between combat aircraft — designed to be […]