I have not been a supporter of the new jet fighter the defense department has spent billions on…..I have not very lovingly called it a “flying brick”…….I have written numerous times how much I dislike this airplane……
https://lobotero.com/2018/03/05/a-10-vs-f-35-remix/
Well it seems that news about this plane has been anything but good….and recently the plane did what I predicted…..flew like a brick.
The F-35 is the US military’s most expensive fighter jet, notes Foreign Policy, and the aircraft just had one of the best and worst weeks in its controversial history. The good part came on Thursday, when the Marines conducted the first-ever airstrike with its version of the jet—a successful hit against a Taliban target in Afghanistan, reports CNN. The bad part came Friday morning, when another of the Marines’ F-35 jets crashed during a training mission in South Carolina, causing the pilot to safely eject. The $100 million-plus stealth jet is a total loss, and the cause is under investigation, but as the Washington Post reports, this is the first “full-blown crash” of an F-35 in the program’s 17-year history.
The Marines’ version of the aircraft is called the F-35B Lightning II, and it’s capable of short takeoffs and vertical landings, reports the AP. Friday’s crash occurred near Marine Corps Station Beaufort, where pilots from militaries around the world come to train on the jet. The F-35 program has been besieged by cost overruns and delays, but the Pentagon announced a milestone of sorts on Friday: It struck a deal with Lockheed Martin that will bring the cost of the most common version of the jet, the F-35A, to its lowest total yet: $89 million, notes the Post. However, the Marines’ version will go for $115 million and the Navy’s for $108 million.
This weapon was a huge waste of time, money and resources……all it is doing is making the M-IC more wealthy selling this “Brick” to our allies.
This thing costs billions to develop and it continues to cost billions to “get it right”….time to cut the losses and scrap this “Brick”…..spend the money on something useful….like education.
Worryingly, the UK has ordered billions of dollar’s worth of these planes. We are the saps, undoubtedly.
Best wishes, Pete.
We have some snake oil salesmen working for the Pentagon….chuq