The Donald And The F-35
BY Herschel Smith
8 years ago
This morning, President-Elect Donald Trump suggested he will attempt to significantly curb military spending by slashing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.
It’s no secret that the F-35 program has run into cost overrun after cost overrun, tied to multiple technical and design flaws including engine fires, software failures, and airframe cracks since the plane’s first flight a decade ago. But even though the F-35 has become a grossly bloated project, hacking away at the fifth-generation fighter would open up some significant holes to fill. President-elect Trump’s tweet alone initially dropped Lockheed Martin’s market share by $4 billion, though it recovered some shortly after.
Full-scale production of the F-35 was originally scheduled to begin eight years ago, but this proved to be an overly-optimistic estimate by 11 years—and that’s assuming full-scale production does, in fact, begin in 2019 as projected now. The F-35 will be the most expensive weapons system in history by a significant margin, exceeding $1 trillion in projected lifetime costs. Trump has targeted the program as an area to save money, along with the new Boeing 747s intended to serve as the new Air Force One jets.
That’s funny. The article says that the F-35 is tied to “multiple technical and design flaws.” I would have said it differently.
I would have said that the F-35 is a piece of shit, good for nothing at all except the ridiculous imaginations of fifth generation warfare advocates, failing at everything it does, a complete bomb at dogfighting, capable of carrying very little ordnance, incapable of defending itself, and an expensive waste of taxpayer money – where the U.S. would be better served with the F-22, refurbishment of the existing fleet of fighters, new Harriers for the USMC, and A-10s in the role of infantry support.
But that’s just me.
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On December 14, 2016 at 12:20 am, Pat Hines said:
You are, of course, exactly right Mr. Smith. But, Israel recently put in an order for 19 of these turkeys, and that will probably save it.
On December 15, 2016 at 5:40 pm, Ned Weatherby said:
But then in the real world, we paid for them anyways with our idiotic funding of everyone overseas, but good point.
On December 14, 2016 at 8:27 am, Frank Clarke said:
The contracts let for the F-35 have contributed to the success of innumerable Congressional reelection campaigns. That’s gotta count for something!
On December 14, 2016 at 8:53 am, BobSykes said:
Because its internal storage capacity is somewhat small, when attacking a target the F35 will carry bombs, rockets and fuel tanks under its wings, just like an F16. It will be stealthy on the way out.
Nowadays the Air Force emphasizes the F35’s connectivity and improved pilot awareness.
On December 15, 2016 at 5:42 pm, Ned Weatherby said:
And because of its cost alone, the powers that currently be will never use it in a ground pounder roll. Call in an airstrike? An F-35 – really? They’ll let the grunts die before letting one of those turkeys be a target.
On December 14, 2016 at 9:37 am, Fred said:
It takes strong leadership to know when it’s time to cut and run. Cut, Run, Done. But one must not fall in love with a thing in order to do that. Who or what is in love with this thing? I think @frank_clarke:disqus has the answer there.
And the nation falters for lack of leadership.
On December 14, 2016 at 10:23 am, Ned Weatherby said:
“I would have said that the F-35 is a piece of shit, good for nothing at all except the ridiculous imaginations of fifth generation warfare advocates, failing at everything it does, a complete bomb at dogfighting, capable of carrying very little ordnance, incapable of defending itself, and an expensive waste of taxpayer money…” And that from an engineer. Perfectly stated.
On December 15, 2016 at 12:34 am, Josh said:
To be fair, it is assumed the days of dogfighting are over and done with. The idea is that an enemy aircraft is engaged from distance before they are even aware of the presence of the F-35 (and F-22). This is accomplished with very, very expensive avionics and ordinance.
But that’s about as far as the truth goes on the JSF catastrophe. The reality is, or soon will be, no more human combat pilots whatsoever. We are not far off from small drones engaging enemy aircraft and ground targets autonomously. I am absolutely convinced of this eventuality, and also that any such drone will far out-perform any human pilot in the majority of circumstances. Classic decision trees matched with neural networks are already being used by grad students to design small drones that play tennis with each other. They perform thousands of calculations per 20ms. These are grad student hobbyists.
The F-35 is an unduly expensive stop-gap to this eventuality, and pork for many congressmen to take back home.
On December 15, 2016 at 6:05 pm, Pat Hines said:
I’ve been around government high tech for nearly five decades. I can say, without reservation, that it mostly does not work as advertised because it is not designed to work.
As drone tech matures, the US government will fall further and further behind developments by the citizenry. I view that as a positive thing.
Eventually, the light-in-the-loafers government Beta-males will simply never venture outside their barracks for fear of being a target of a resistance fighter. A situation I relish.
On December 15, 2016 at 5:39 pm, SiGraybeard said:
“
I would have said that the F-35 is a piece of shit, good for nothing
at all except …
But that’s just me.”
No, not just you. Seems to sum up everything I’ve heard.
Somebody got a good pile of money for getting the pentagon to dump the F-22 in favor of this turkey. Maybe it was the guys in the pentagon.