The more it flies the more problems surface.

So it's 8 years late.
It's $263 billion over budget - but probably twice that amount.
Doesn't like warm gas.
Is vulnerable to lightening.
Doesn't dogfight well.
Still doesn't have an operational gun - which is OK since it doesn't dogfight well.
The ejection seat will probably kill you.
There is no simulator training.
The computerized maintenance management system orders the wrong parts.
And the radar is glitchy and pretty much inoperable - maybe it can make popcorn but probably would have to turn it on and off a lot.

Sounds like a joy to fly.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci...rash-constantly.html

I'm sure it would be awesome to fly, especially if you didn't have to do all the other stuff it's supposed to be a world-beater at.

The problem arises when the attempt is made to make a compromise design that can do a lot of things, but is best at none of them. So instead of something that is the best in the world you get a plane that is second best in the world against most any purpose designed aircraft for whatever particular task. I suspect that is great if you dine on corporate pork but will be rather dismal if we are ever in a situation where we actually need to accomplish some task that can only be done by something that is the best in the world at that point.

Just remember "What's good for M&M Industries is good for America."

We are getting our first F-35's in October, I will be long gone by then, as I am moving to another job.

The folks that are flying it think it is ok. A lot of F-18 folks hate it, the majority of which have never seen or touched a real one.

It is a very "smart" airplane designed to be the committee camel. It doesn't do anything as well as the F-18 other than the fact that it is super sneaky on radar.

We have had the F/A-18 for 30 years, and it has been upgraded nearly the entire time. Kind of hard to compete with that.

I am pretty easy on the F-35 as I know it took a lot to make the F/A-18E/F/G rhino/growler great.

I am not a pilot, I used to be a maintainer on active duty and now I work for a defense contractor. So my 2 cents may not be worth much.

No program today is not without its share of growing pains. It's just that the F-35 seems to have a lot of amazingly expensive ones to deal with.

Too bad we didn't just move directly to UCAV technology and get the man out of the front of the thing.

We have about 20-? drones on the base I work on, I have no idea. I don't work with them or know anything about them. I see them all the time. Some are bigger than an golden eagle, some are bigger than cessna.

How many jobless USN, USMC, USAF and USA pilots do you think there would be? The F-35 is supposed to be the last piloted fighter.

Most likely by the time all the bugs are sorted out in the F-35, UCAVs will be flying CAP for them and doing most of the work.

Looks like the F-35 is going to be the best buggy whip ever made and most likely the last one.

quote:

Originally posted by Big Wonderful Wyoming:
We have about 20-? drones on the base I work on, I have no idea. I don't work with them or know anything about them. I see them all the time. Some are bigger than an golden eagle, some are bigger than cessna.

How many jobless USN, USMC, USAF and USA pilots do you think there would be? The F-35 is supposed to be the last piloted fighter.

The story I was told was that "most" drones are private contractor owned and maintained, does this have a shred of truth to it?

Also, just as how the USN has gone back to teaching at least the rudiments of celestial navigation due to concerns of the GPS network getting attacked and actually shut down for lengths of time, I suspect there will always be some sort of manned front line fighter lest some country decide to launch a bunch of anti satellite missiles in the future.

I don't work with them, I have no idea.

I am not a pilot, I don't know anything about navigation systems.

We can only speculate in one hand and shit in the other hand, and see how this whole world comes together with technology. All of it scares the hell out of me.

We have a national requirement to create a disastrous weapons system a couple times per century just to maintain the propensity for stupidity of Congress and the Defense Dept. If you recall, the last such calamity was the F-111 which started as a multi-service fighter for the AF and Navy but quickly exhausted its fighter qualities due to weight and size overruns. Too big for a carrier aircraft and too heavy for a fighter with either service or with the allies who planned to buy the turkey. Didn't have enough power to pull a sick whore out of bed and couldn't turn with a Boeing 727. So, it became a half-assed bomber and lost a lot of bucks in Defense R&D and Appropriations. Now we're heading down the same road with an airplane that's underpowered, a Tinker Toy gun system, vaporware radar and electronics systems, and costs enough to buy each F-35 pilot 3 FA-18s for recreational flying toys. I doubt that even Donald Trump will be able to fix this scam on the taxpayer.

Somewhere I saw info about the Carrier that was built for the F-35 will be re-furbished to handle the "new " F-35 . Can't remember where sI saw that ?

Think we have problems with the new F-35.... you don't want to know about the problems that have turned up with our new nuclear fast attack subs... problems that may even include our newest carriers.

Phil

You mean the welds?

quote:

Originally posted by Greyghost:
Think we have problems with the new F-35.... you don't want to know about the problems that have turned up with our new nuclear fast attack subs... problems that may even include our newest carriers.

Phil

Drive shaft bearing failures and gearbox failures. Some of the most basic propulsion failures...

Link #1

Link #2

And now add to the F-35 problem list a "broken brain"...


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci...d-claims-report.html

Five of six F-35 could't take off due to software glitches. But not to worry, the aircraft are "combat ready".

Whisky Tango Fox!!!





http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...mbat-ready-year.html