Three F-35 Joint Strike Fighters (rear to front) — AF-2, AF-3 and AF-4 — can be seen flying over Edwards Air Force Base in this Dec. 10, 2011, in this handout photo provided by Lockheed Martin. (photo by REUTERS/Lockheed Martin/Darin Russell)
Metin Gurcan, Al-Monitor: Will the F-35 change Middle East warfare?
US Vice President Joe Biden delivered a speech in Washington April 23 on the occasion of Israeli Independence Day celebrations. He announced that in 2016, the United States will deliver two F-35 Joint Strike Fighters to Israel. Yet, the debate still rages on the cost-effectiveness of the Joint Strike Fighter project, with rumors circulating that the project may be terminated due to its phenomenal $1 trillion budget.
Biden indicated that the F-35s may be fully operational for the first time in the Middle East next year. Will the F-35 totally revamp traditional approaches to warfare in the Middle East? This question is timely because in recent years we have seen a more “militarized Middle East,” with the ongoing civil war in Syria, the expansion of the Islamic State threat to Africa and Afghanistan, clashes in Yemen, increasing sectarian divides and the Iran-Israel conflict.
WNU Editor: A lot of ifs, maybes, and hope from the author that the F-35 will deliver on what its promoters have been promising. Unfortunately .... the reality on the ground is anything but. The F-35 has (and is) being plagued with numerous problems, and there is no guarantee that they will be solved anytime soon. The only part of this article that I agreed with is the author's observation that Russia’s Sukhoi T-50 and China’s J-20 projects are also plagued with problems, and they will not be on the market until the next decade (maybe).
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