One of my favourite topics at this blog is my continuing research into what I have long said to be probably the most wasteful "military program" in the entire history of mankind to this date... I am of course talking about the now multi-TRILLION dollar Lockheed Martin F35 "program" that is producing one of the most horrid "combat aircraft" imaginable; the so called 'stealthy' F35 "Lightning II" fighter.....I have written in so many previous reports about how this "fighter" is one of the WORSE aircraft imaginable.... It is ridiculously slow for a fighter aircraft, barely carries any armaments and any bombs, has a ludicrously designed VTOL engine that guzzles fuel at an alarming rate making it useless for long missions or sticking around to do any real "fighting", cannot fly in rain or until recently even at night, cannot maneuver and therefore is useless for close air to air combat in "dog fights", is ludicrously overpriced at nearly $200 MILLION a copy, and is claimed to be "stealthy" which is a bold faced lie since "stealth" itself is an illusion and one of the greatest cons ever! And yet, so many countries, including my own here in Canada, have jumped on this piece of shit bandwagon and are purchasing these duds to replace REAL FIGHTERS!.... Basically this "airplane" is a travesty and should have been scrapped over a decade ago....BUT, it gets even better... For according to the following report from the Sputnik News online service at www.sputniknews.com, apparently the US Pentagon has put out their annual review on this piece of shit, and they have found over 800 "flaws" in the aircraft and its "capabilities" to boot!.... Here in fact is that Sputnik News article right here for all to see for themselves, and I do have my own thoughts and comments to follow:Pentagon Discovers Hundreds of Deficiencies in F-35 Combat Aircraft – ReportThe annual review of the fighter jet found over 800 flaws in the aircraft’s capabilities, with dozens of them having a direct effect on pilot safety and readiness for combat, if not fixed.The US Department of Defence found hundreds of deficiencies in Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet in its annual assessment by Pentagon’s test specialists, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.The Pentagon review, conducted by its director of operational test and evaluation, Robert Behler, pointed out a long list of deficiencies, 13 of which have been labeled as “must-fix”, meaning they are necessary to be fixed due to their direct effect on safety or combat capability.
“Although the program office is working to fix deficiencies, new discoveries are still being made, resulting in only a minor decrease in the overall number,” the assessment reportedly said, adding that there are still “many significant‘’ flaws not yet addressed.
The number of technical deficiencies that have been identified as of November 2019 was 873. Though the number of flaws is less than the 917 found in the previous annual review, it still raises questions about the reliability and availability of the aircraft and its maintenance systems.The list of F-35 weaknesses included serious problems such as “unacceptable” accuracy in its 25mm gun, that apparently does not shoot straight, unresolved cybersecurity “vulnerabilities”, reliability, aircraft availability and maintenance systems.Despite the huge amount of unresolved deficiencies and the incomplete testing of the F-35 fighter jet, the US Congress continues to accelerate purchases of the aircraft. Congress reportedly added 11 to the Defence Department’s request in 2016 and in 2017, 20 in fiscal 2018, 15 in 2019 and 20 this year.By late September 2019, almost 500 jets were delivered to customers worldwide and all will need extensive retrofitting following the findings.
“Although we have not seen the report, the F-35 continues to mature and is the most lethal, survivable and connected fighter in the world,” Brett Ashworth, a spokesperson for Lockheed, said, according to the news outlet. “Reliability continues to improve, with the global fleet averaging greater than 65% mission capable rates and operational units consistently performing near 75%.”
NTS Notes: WHY am I not in the least bit surprised by the findings in this report? This thing is such a travesty IMHO, and the entire "program" to replace the majority of the US's existing fighters with this hopelessly inferior and flawed piece of shit is turning into an unmitigated disaster!The facts are that the F35 program is such a waste of time and money, as the estimated cost for the entire program at now over 2 TRILLION dollars is the real travesty here... That 2 TRILLION dollars could be spent on much better and much cheaper aircraft that can actually FIGHT.. And the savings alone could give the entire American nation a workable health care system and give every American student the chance for FREE University courses and training to boot! Heck, a few hundred BILLION may even be left over to try to rebuild America's ailing infrastructure as well...There are some that are in fact pointing to the fact that the psycho state of Israel has these so called 'fighters" in their arsenal right now and that these psychos have used them in bombing runs against Syria because of their "stealth" capabilities.... I am not sold on that notion of "stealth" for the fact that Russian radar systems can see every single "stealth" aircraft out there and proved that as fact back in the 1999 Yugoslavian war when the Serbians used their Russian built and so called "primitive" radar systems and easily saw US "stealth" aircraft attempting bombing raids... I therefore look at the claims that the Israelis were able to use "stealth" for their raids to be either false or pure propaganda....And lets face facts here... Modern Russian made fighters such as the Su35 and Su37 are far superior in fighting capabilities to this piece of shit.....And this shows how the American and other nations that stupidly purchase and deploy these "fighters" could be on the losing side of any air war if they meet up with those aircraft...... The sad tale of the F35 continues..... I used to say that if you squeezed this lemon you get lemon juice and I was not kidding!More to comeNTS