Behold What Your Military Industrial Complex Has Done For You!
BY Herschel Smith
5 years, 5 months ago
Here’s something the public didn’t know until today: If one of the U.S. military’s new F-35 stealth fighters has to climb at a steep angle in order to dodge an enemy attack, design flaws mean the plane might suddenly tumble out of control and crash.
Also, some versions of the F-35 can’t accelerate to supersonic speed without melting their own tails or shedding the expensive coating that helps to give the planes their radar-evading qualities.
The Pentagon’s $400-billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, one of the biggest and most expensive weapons programs in history, has come under fire, so to speak, over more than a decade for delays, rising costs, design problems and technical glitches.
But startling reports by trade publication Defense News on Wednesday revealed flaws that previously only builder Lockheed Martin, the military, and the plane’s foreign buyers knew about.
The newly-exposed problems underscore the potential fragility of American air power as the armed services work to replace more and more old fighters with as many as 2,300 F-35s while also reconfiguring to confront the increasingly deadly Chinese and Russian air forces.
The problems might also help to explain why acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan reportedly described the F-35 program as “fucked up.”
Defense News obtained military documents detailing a wide range of serious problems with two of the three versions of the F-35. The Air Force’s F-35A appears to be exempt from the latest flaws, but the Marine Corps’ vertical-landing F-35B and the Navy’s carrier-compatible F-35C both suffer what the services call “category 1” deficiencies. (In military parlance, a category 1 flaw in a plane can prevent a pilot from accomplishing their mission.)
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One problem cropped up during test flights in 2011, Defense News reported, citing the trove of military documents. In the 2011 tests, at least one F-35B and F-35C both flew at speeds of Mach 1.3 and Mach 1.4. A post-flight inspection in November 2011 revealed the F-35B sustained “bubbling [and] blistering” of its stealth coating.
Further supersonic tests in December 2011 revealed structural damage on an F-35C resulting from the extreme heat coming from the plane’s single Pratt & Whitney engine, one of the most powerful fighter engines ever made.
To avoid similar damage, the military has limited F-35B and F-35C pilots to flying at supersonic speed for less than a minute at a time.
But that could make it impossible for aviators to keep up with, or avoid, Russian and Chinese fighters flying faster than the speed of sound without any restrictions. “It is infeasible for the Navy or Marine Corps to operate the F-35 against a near-peer threat under such restrictions,” Defense News paraphrased the documents as saying.
But MIC isn’t done with the insults and malfeasance. Not by a long shot.
A Chinese-owned company is making circuit boards for the top-secret next generation F-35 warplanes flown by Britain and the United States, Sky News can reveal.
Exception PCB, a printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturer in Gloucestershire, south west England, produces circuit boards that “control many of the F-35’s core capabilities”, according to publicity material produced by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD).
This includes “its engines, lighting, fuel and navigation systems”, it said.
If the FedGov had actually made an assignment to the DoD to do it’s dead level best to spend the most money on the worst possible outcome, I don’t think they could have done any better than they did.
Fifth generation warfare. Sounds nice. How do you feel about your dollars spent?
On June 16, 2019 at 9:31 pm, OldSarg said:
Be careful of “news” stories of this aircraft’s capabilities or limitations. All aircraft paint will fail above certain speeds and the folks flying this bird are more that willing to tell you why No One could survive flying against this aircraft. https://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/f-35-faces-most-critical-test-180971734/
On June 16, 2019 at 9:35 pm, Herschel Smith said:
What do you think would happen to their career if those folks flying the bird said anything bad about the fair-haired dream child of the DoD?
On June 17, 2019 at 7:17 am, ragman said:
I call BS on “all aircraft paint will fail above certain speeds”. The F35 is a 400 billion dollar POS. The Five Sided Wind Tunnel is going absolutely batshit crazy over the sale and deployment of the Russian S 400 SAM. Why? Because they know that this “stealthy” pile of garbage will be shot down, that’s why. Sounds to me like it’s the military version of the B 737 Max.
On June 17, 2019 at 12:34 pm, anonymoose said:
As advanced as our defense tech gets, there’s always some lower tech countermeasure that can defeat it.
Sherman tanks vs Panzers for example.
Viet Cong and Afghanies for another example
On June 17, 2019 at 5:27 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
A friend of mine is a retired USAF Colonel, combat aviator and test pilot. As fate might have it, we were talking just the other day and I asked him what he thought of the F-35. After a string of invective and insults about it, just to make sure I got the point, he said “Hate it!” and then told me why. I asked what we should have built instead and he said “F-22 Raptors.” Case closed, far as I am concerned.
The F-35 program is the culmination of the deterioration of the Pentagon/DOD into a racket whose basic, if unstated, mission isn’t the winning of wars or the maximization of our military effectiveness – but the maximization of profit margins for the top defense contractors and their bought-and-paid-for stooges in Congress. If everyone hops aboard the gravy train, it doesn’t really matter whether the weapon question actually works. After all, chances are that it won’t be their kids whose necks are on the line if an F-35 fails catastrophically or some other such calamity happens.
On June 18, 2019 at 9:19 am, George said:
2300 F35s? In all likelihood the empire will not be around to build that many.
On June 18, 2019 at 8:38 pm, Gryphon said:
This Project was Doomed from the Start (if you don’t count Enriching certain people) because just like the V-22 Flying Abortion, the F-35 is a “Compromise” Design. All Aircraft Design is nothing but making Trade-Offs in Engineering and Construction to achieve a “Desired Result”. The Best Aircraft Ever Built were Limited by Design to performing a Specific (narrow) set of Functions.
The Best Design Engineers during the Golden Era of Jets (before I was Born, never mind Working on them) had a degree of Autonomy that is Impossible in today’s (((financialized))) “Defense Industry”. Men like Kelly Johnson at Lockheed (before the ‘merger’) Operated Design Shops not only Independent of Corporate Direction, but most of the Time “Management” didn’t even Know what was going on in the Backshop, but wouldn’t be allowed in the Plant.
The V-22 is an Attempt to make an Airplane fly like a Helicopter, and Vise-Versa. It Does Neither Well. The A-10 is a Design Optimized for Ground Attack, within Rifle Range of the Enemy being Fought. It Does this Job Better than any other Aircraft of its Type.
One of the Stupidest things the F-35 was “designed” to do is “Ground Attack” a Mission that an Un-Armored, Single-Engine, lightly-Gunned Plane that has Poor Maneuverability at Low Speeds is simply Not going to Perform.
As for the whole “Stealth” bullshit, it’s Just That, a Marketing Ploy that is “Sold” to a Gullible public (and congresscritters). No Aircraft is “Invisible” to All Radar Frequencies, and this is one of the Reasons that Russian ADA Units have two, and sometimes three, Different types of Radar Sets connected to the AA Rocket Battery. Never Mind Look-Down Satellite Radar Feeds).
Then, there is the ‘issue’ of Electro-Optical Sensing of an Aircraft…. a Turbine-Powered Fighter Jet has a Yuuuuge Heat Signature all across the Spectrum, from the Exhaust to the Leading Edges of the Wings being quite Warm (even Too Hot to Touch on Landing) from Air Friction alone.
Another little Trick is the fact that ANY Aircraft generates a Static-Electric Charge as it Moves through the Air; this leaves an Invisible (to the Eye) Wake, just like a Boat in Water. It’s One More Way to Locate and Track any Aircraft.
The upshot of all this Nonsense is that the U.S. (and its zionist Master) are going to War with Technology that Can and Will be Defeated, but they are too Stupid to Understand the Consequences.