I remember that Trump was on Hewitt saying that the pilots thought this jet was less maneuverable. Hewitt still wanted Trump to know why Trump hadn’t committed to memory the name of the Health Minister of Dirkastan, and he had Fiorina scheduled after Trump who knew the answer. But this wasn’t as important, only that Trump could answer him about the Triad, and said F35 was questionable..
“The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is the most expensive procurement program in Pentagon history.”
No, its the most expensive in the history of human warfare.
4 times as expensive as the Apollo Program and the moon landings. That was a 20 Billion dollar program, about 100 billion in todays dollars.
The flying moonpig is a 400 billion dollar program.
I sure hope the good engineers can get the plane working for us
but $400 billion is still chump change compared to the $7+ TRILLION DINEROS that O said he was spending on “shovel ready jobs infrastructure projects”... and which he later was forced to admit did not exist
where is our $7trillion!??? I mean, a Trillion here and a Trillion there and pretty soon you’re talking about some real money!
Russia spends a fraction of what we do on its military. Nonetheless, Russia’s military appears to actually be geared towards winning wars. Our military appears to be geared towards the goal of lining the pockets of fat cats. The F35 strikes me as an extreme case of fat-cat pocket-lining technology.
The bright side is that the Chinese stole the unworkable technology to make their own stealth planes. It should help drag them down too.
Basic military doctrine: Use air superiority fighters to clear the skies, then use heavy bombers and close air support to help out the boots on the ground.
I am of course referring to F22s, B52s, and A10s.
Oops, sorry, we cannot do that since Obama canceled the F22 program.
Gee, wonder why he did something so harmful to our military... /SARC
Can we find a more melodramatic title please?
Not great news. was hoping the prior reports were more honest and accurate. May not be the case.
Me thinks some people working on this project are shaking in their Boots thinking that Trump might get elected.
Then again, Hillary might cancel it and spend the money rounding up all us Deplorables (which isn’t even a real word).
People don’t remember the 1980s when the F-16 was the problem child. Along with the mountain of technical problems, we were losing anywhere between 12 and 20 aircraft per year and killing 6-8 pilots per year. How about FY82 when the Class A mishap rate was 15.83/100,000 flight hours with 16 destroyed jets vs. a rate of 1-3 per 100,000 flight hours in the 2000s with ONE unsuccessful ejection in 15 years (and that was because the pilot attempted ejection above 600 knots and about 2 seconds before the jet went in). How many crashes have the F-35 had? And don’t tell me that they’re grounded due to maintenance problems, I live 3 miles from an AF base where they’re buzzing the place like fireflies.
How about Vietnam, when the new killer F-111 went in and the VC turned them into scrap metal at a rate that got McNamara titillated? How about the AV-8 “Widowmaker”?
What’s the difference today? The ability to whip up hysteria via the internet and people who will believe anything (the slobbering believers of cold fusion and engines that are 500% efficient here at FR are proof of that).
Love Lockheed Martin’s MLRS but the F-35...there needs to be charges for letting this go on so long.
I just read a news report a few days ago on the F-35B VTOL.
The Marine Corps just completed a three month test on it and rated it excellent in every category.
Every new major weapon system the USA builds seems to go through this same “complete disaster” phase for several years.
Then, miraculously, they all become the best, or one of the best, weapon systems in the world.
I keep having the uneasy feeling that many "programs" can never be completed as intended. The other military-related program that comes easily to mind in the "littoral" stealth coastal defense warships.
In the non-military arena there are of course many more examples. Self-driving cars, cell phone controlled homes, computerized critical civilization infrastructure, e.g. the electrical grid, water and sewage treatment plants, safety in the world transportation system, including all land and water transportation as well as the obvious air-travel system.
What could all these seemingly unrelated things have in common?
Hmmmmm... indeed!
Trump is the only one brave enough to cut this program
Reminds me of Sen Dirksen's comment,....A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money.....
POGO railed against the F-22 as that platform took so long to mature.
Surprise, POGO is railing against the F-35 as this platform is taking so long to mature.
Innovation and revolution doesn't always follow a predetermined time schedule, but the only way to ensure you won't fail is to never try.
Yep, like doing a complete remodel of a Navy Exchange that just needed a new roof, but not remodeling the Pharmacy to make it Handicap friendly after the DOD MANDATED all Tricare Life use the base pharmacy or Fraud prone Express Scripts, who can’t even manage to get your meds in the right mail box, NO ID SIGN FOR required.
They just reset the Commissary, not necessary, and repaved the parking lot, again not necessary and stuck in HUMONGOUS speed bumps in both Commissary and Exchange parking lots which are 5 mph.
Millington, TN went from a training Naval base to BUPERS and we gained twice the Brass. So prices skyrocketed at the Exchange as they went to high end stuff. $200 Vera Wang Wallet type crap. Commissary is now as expensive as the local grocery store. Did I mention they installed electronic price thing’s too. Just wasting money. And we have Rent a Guards at the gates.
Ready or not, the F-35 would be employed if the shooting began.
Look at the P-40 ... a rugged and serviceable plane but it was obsolete by the start of the war. Still, that didn’t stop the Warhawk from flying in every theater of the war, right to the end.
I think they should just bite the financial bullet and reopen the F-22 production line that they never should have closed in the first place. I think I read somewhere that the F-22 tooling was tucked away in a warehouse, for just such a contingency?
FYI — Got to see the F-22 in last year’s Air Show in Atlantic City. What an impressive bird!
I never knew a fighter jet could do a hammerhead without stalling out!