Thursday, January 8, 2009

"Reselling" The Not-So-Stealthy F-35


From World Wide Pigs:

Yesterday, Lockheed Martin, the maker of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) announced they will start a “resell” effort of the jet. They are somehow surprised by the criticism of the program. They will have a lot of work to do. First the F-35 is not proven to be “affordable” any time soon. Next no one knows how much more the delivery schedule will slip. That goes hand in hand with many things including development progress of a complex program with less than 2% of it's flight testing done.

Next, the programs claims of networking can be had by really any platform. Just like tires. Finally we are told it will be survivable in combat. That is being brought into question also.

According to a new publication by Air Power Australia, it seems that the F-35 will most likely meet the low observable requirements of it’s design. At first this sounds great. However APA goes on to explain that while the Joint Strike Fighter requirements were being chased, high end surface to air missile (SAM) technology, sensors and modern combat aircraft advanced more than the “requirement” could realistically handle in combat.

Read more
....

My Comment: Great .... billions spent and we may now have a lemon with no alternative but the F-22. I can hear the groans from the Pentagon and Congress right now.

Sigh .... this is not the first time that I have read a story on the limits of the F-35 .... but there are certainly more and more stories coming out right now.

No comments: