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 […]
Commentary by John Vogel, Jun. 18, 2018, via Vermont Public Radio In 1787, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison wrote a series of articles called the Federalist Papers in order to persuade citizens in the newly formed United States to adopt the U.S. Constitution. Madison argued passionately that adopting the Constitution would protect local citizens from […]
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, […]
A Commentary and letter sent to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., from a group of Winooksi residents; Via VTDigger, Jun 11, 2019 We, the undersigned families and individuals, live in Winooski and many of us have at least one young child in our homes. We are writing to urge you to reconsider your support for basing […]
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 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 […]
By Molly Walsh for Seven Days, June 5, 2019 Long-awaited sound maps released last Tuesday contained bad news for Winooski: Half the city now lies within the expanded area that will experience high noise levels from the F-35 jets to be based at Burlington International Airport starting in September. The following day, four Utah-based F-35s coincidentally made an unscheduled […]
Commentary by Joe Randazzo, published by VTDigger, Jun 5, 2019 At 8:05 a.m. on Friday, May 31, we had a preview of what is in store for South Burlington when the F-35s will be permanently based at our airport. Our home is not in the most sensitive area. Although we are near the University Mall, […]