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: Anthony Capaccio for Bloomberg, May 11, 2019 The crash of a U.S. Marine Corps F-35 that temporarily grounded the entire fleet of next-generation jets in 2018 was caused by a manufacturing defect in a fuel tube made by a United Technologies subcontractor, according to congressional investigators. The defect “caused an engine fuel tube to rupture during […]
By: Aidan Quigley for VTDigger, Apr. 24, 2019 The first noise map for the Burlington International Airport that includes the F-35s coming this fall is “substantially complete” and won’t include any surprises, airport officials say. The map is consistent with findings in the Air Force’s Environmental Impact Statement and will be published May 28, according […]
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 […]
By Steve Dent for Endgadget.com, November 23, 2018 After years of cost overruns and criticism, the US military has started to deploy its stealth-enabled F-35 fighter jet. To communicate that message in no uncertain terms, the Air Force’s 388th and 419th Fighter Wings carried out combat exercises meant to test the capabilities of their F-35As. The drill […]