Danish MoD Grilled Over Hushing Up F-35 Noise Levels
By Andreas Berg for Spec Ops Magazine, Aug 27, 2018
The Danish MoD’s unverified claims about the noise levels of the future backbone of the Scandinavian country’s air force may add additional costs to the divisive multi-billion krone purchase, experts suggest.
Defense Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen of the ruling Liberal Party has misled the Danish parliament in matters pertaining to the noise levels of the F-35 fighters before allocating billions for the procurement of the fifth generation US combat jets, two experts claimed in an interview with the Jyllands-Posten daily.
According to Jyllands-Posten, Frederiksen failed to inform the parliament about problems with measures to ensure that the residents in the vicinity of Skrydstrup air base in South Jutland won’t be affected by the noise.
Furthermore, the Danish MoD maintained that changing the aircraft’s engines could reduce the noise levels below what was claimed by the manufacturer, Lockheed Martin. Despite the fact that the Danish calculations were never approved by the US Development Office for the F-35 (JPO), the Danish Parliament’s Finance Committee allocated over DKK 16 billion for the procurement of the unique fighter jets in December 2017.
