Ryan Faith, VICE News: What Is the Pentagon's Multi-Billion Dollar F-35 Jet Actually Supposed to Do?
The F-35 Lighting II is the most expensive weapons program in the history of the human race, and production is now being kicked into high gear. The main Lockheed Martin factory for the F-35, located in Fort Worth, Texas, is beginning the long ramp-up to get to full-scale production, which is expected by 2019. The F-35 is supposed to replace in whole or in part a large number of different aircraft types and is intended to operate for at least 50 years.
So, naturally, one of the very first things people want to know is whether or not the plane is any damned good. The US taxpayer is footing a bill that, over the next several decades, will run several hundred billion dollars and involve buying a couple thousand aircraft, and critics have complained that the jack-of-all-trades F-35 is a master of none.
In a bid to get a handle on that, VICE News went to Naval Air Station Patuxent River (a.k.a. Pax River) in Maryland to talk to some F-35 test pilots and get a fundamental grip on why and how the plane will be used. The Navy is the second-biggest customer of the plane, after the US Air Force and before the Marines and several allied nations. It plans to replace most of its F-18 Hornets with it.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: Bottom line on this author's review of the F-35 .... a lot of reliance on new tech and avionics .... and an admission that in a dogfight the F-22 will be a better fighter. But is it worth the price tag and will it fulfil U.S. national security needs .... I still do not feel reassure.
Update: One more reason why the A-10 should not be replaced by the F-35 .... Function Over Form: The Case for Keeping The "Warthog" Over The F-35 (Cole Bourland, RCD/Modern War Institute).
4 comments:
People seem to be buying these things. As such, they must "feel reassure." There are other options available to these people.
What would happen if 1.)Russia attacks the United States with nuclear weapons essentially wiping it off the world map so the country no longer exists, 2.)the United States breaks up into its component state parts whereby the United States ceases to exist as a political entity, 3.)Russia, China, and some combination of their allies attack the United States taking it over, 4.)Islamic terrorists attack the United States with some combination of "dirty bombs" and suitcase nuclear warheads killing millions and destroying US economic infrastructure including the facilities that manufacture the F-35, 5.)president Trump by choice cancels the program because it is to expensive and does not fit well with American defense needs or president Clinton or President Biden cancel the program out of necessity because we simply cannot afford it.
I estimate a 95% probability one of these five scenarios is going to happen within five years. If I can figure this out, I cannot fathom a situation where "allied" leaders cannot grasp this yet they still want the product!!
As I've stated here and elsewhere many times, the greatest threats to America are 1.)an all out nuclear attack by Russia, 2.)an Islamic terrorist attack using a combination of dirty bombs and suitcase nuclear weapons, and 3.)an invasion by Russia, China, and some combination of their allies. I just don't see how the F-35 is of practical use to handle the situations America faces with its national defense needs.
With that said the critics of this program have long reminded of a line from Shakespeare. "Thou doest protest much." The fact that anyone actually wants to buy, while not necessarily proving what I've long suspected does seem to add some credence to it.
The critics could have focused on the fact the plane costs to much, doesn't fit American defense needs, and American personnel lack the expertise to make something of this magnitude work and stayed on point. Had they done so the program would have probably been killed long ago. Lastly, as a condition of killing the program, the people associated with the program could have been dignified retirements along with counseling services as needed while being thanked for their service to America. Failing at a major project is NEVER easy to deal with. These people should have been made aware that their service to America was/is appreciated.
First of all, countries are canceling their orders for this plane. (Evidence: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/more-allies-are-cutting-orders-for-the-pentagons-costly-new-fighter-jet )
Secondly, there is a less than zero chance that Russia or China will Nuke the USA without the USA starting a war first.
The #1 danger to the USA is (Please scroll to page 10 and see the Fed announce that 70% of all US Dollars are held abroad : http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/bulletin/1996/1096lead.pdf ) The #1 danger to the USA is other countries end their use of the US dollar in trade between themselves and all those dollars come back to the USA, and buy for 7 dollars the hamburger you wanted to eat and pay 3 dollars for. (Or the foreigner buys the house you want to live in or girl you want to pro-create with.)
The second greatest danger to the USA is... You know the (NOT "funded") debt of about 19 Trillion dollars the Federal Government owes (In short term "T-Bills/Bonds that are virtualy the same as cash)? Well, add on to that the (YOU "funded" this with the money taken out of your paycheck!) "unfunded liabilities" the Federal Government borrowed from a "Trust-Fund" called "Social Security", well, when the Federal Government is unable to pay you the SS money you think you're gonna get, not to mention the T-Bill/Bond holders, there's gonna be hell to pay. (Check out what this Military-Industrial-Complex website prediction for 9 years from today! http://www.deagel.com/country/United-States-of-America_c0001.aspx )
The #3 danger to the USA is... Find out how many Dollars in short term T-Bills the Chi-Coms hold. Figure out haw many US Serviceman are in the US Army, airforce, Navy and Marines. Divide the US money the Chi-Coms have by the number of US military Serviceman and you will find that that the Chi-Coms can give more than 2 Million dollars to each and every serving Serviceman for them to turn over their kit and sit any dreamed of war out on free Land the Rooskies are just itching to give them in Russias far-east. (See: http://newobserveronline.com/russia-offers-free-land-foreigners/ )
Making the F-35 is a corporate-welfare boondoggle and it and the workers who built it are utterly worthless. The T-50 Pak-fa will see combat before the F-35, and one relatively cheep T-50 will prove worth several "clubbed baby seal" F-35's.
The Rooskies and the Chi-Coms will side-step any US attempt at a war, and watch from the sidelines as the US economy implodes and beggars the Nation.
Denmark just announced it wants to buy 27 of these things. With that said I have no doubt many orders are being cancelled as it is cost prohibitive in many cases and the jack of all trades master of none approach as currently seems to be the situation may not be the best approach for everyone. The point I was trying to make is if the prgram really were as bad as the critics suggest no one would buy it. Yet the program still has buyers.
I don't the US is going to start a war with Russia or China. With that said the US may try to things like honor various defense agreements no matter how ridiculous they are, try to chart policies independent of Russia and China, or insist that it's rights be respected. In other words the United States may be a bit to upity for these countries in daring that it be resoected as an equal to these nations.
Some type of false flag operation may be in order whereby an attack is staged, the Americans are blamed, and this serves as a prelude for inasion of America. For Russian and Chinese expansion plans to come to fruition, America bust be moved out of the way.
Russia and China are the world's most powerful countries. A better approach here would be for America to recognize this and act accordingly and from this look for ways to add value to Russia and China. Then they wouldn't attack us as the services we ard providing them mean they wouldn't want to risk losing what we're providing. Couple this with a proper deployment of US forces making their inevitable victory pyric enough to make the attack cost prohibitive combined with the benefits being providdd to them and I think we would be on the right track.
You are correct about the debt problem. I've discussed it before here and elsewhere. While it is a deep subject, great places to start would be selling off all federal holdings in an orderly fashion to go towards unfunded liabilities and reforming social security whereby the system is gradually phased out. Clearly we have to save it for those already on it.
As I've pointed out elsewhere, the US dollar will lose it's role as world reserve currency within the next four years, at a minimum as it coukd happen sooner assuming worse doesn't happen. Now is the time to begin negotiating in earnest with Russia, China, and other countries on the replacement with the goal of a "soft landing." The loss of the dollar in this role cannot be prevented.
The people working on the F-35 program from top management down are true American patriots and should be treated with the honor and dignity consumate with that. In the unlikely event that they can pull this off with a plane that is "jack of all trades best at all trades" that would be sonething!! This is probably not possible and seems cost prohibitive for a nation in such dire straits as America is. Bottom line: the program likely should have been killed long ago.
As stated previously the critics protest to much. Seldom have I observed such an organized and vocal opposition as the opposition to the F-35 is. Perhaps the manufacturer is closer to pulling this off tgan is gendrally known. As hysterical as the opposition is there clearly seems to be other factors the public does not know at work.
Finally, if US military personnel are either not in Eastern Europe or the South Chjna Sea and, if they are, they are under the clear command and control of Russia or China as the case may be this should reduce the risk of war. At a minimum, it would reduce the chance of a false flag operation being carried out against us.
Denmark was going to buy 48, now it's down to 27, to replace what was 71 F-16 fleet, the last of which will be grounded in 2020.
As Denmark will not recieve their F-35's until at best, 2023, they will either need to find a NATO Partner willing to fly CAP over Denmark, Greenland and the Faroes for at least a year, or they will have to find some kind of Enterprise Jet Rental Company to tide them over.
As a tier 3 Member in the JSF Program, Denmark has already invested $3.7 Billion ( USD) in the development program.
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