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 […]
By: Mike Dougherty for VTDigger, Sept. 13, 2019 The first two F-35s in the Vermont Air National Guard’s new fleet of fighter jets are scheduled to arrive in Burlington by next Friday. But a coalition of protesters who have fought the basing for years continues to press the military to change its mind. NBC5 first […]
By: Aidan Quigley for VTDigger, Sept. 9, 2019 BURLINGTON — Police arrested two retired Air Force officers Monday evening for refusing to leave Sen. Patrick Leahy’s office in downtown Burlington, as part of an ongoing protest against the basing of F-35s at Burlington International Airport. Retired Col. Rosanne Greco and retired Lt. Col. Roger Bourassa […]
By: Dan Grazier for POGO, Aug. 6, 2019 The F-35 Joint Strike Fighters in the operational test fleet at California’s Edwards Air Force Base are suffering from low readiness rates that may threaten the successful completion of the crucial combat-testing phase of the program, as shown in a chart created by the Joint Program Office’s […]
By: David Axe for The National Interest, July 18, 2019 The F-35 Lighting II The U.S. military’s growing fleet of F-35 stealth fighters will fall short of the 80 percent readiness goal that former Defense Secretary James Mattis instituted before quitting in protest of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy in January 2019. Former Secretary of […]
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 […]