It would have been a much better plane if the marines hadn't of insisted on vtol
The company employs a stable of in-house and outside lobbyists and spends some $15 million on lobbying each year. When it comes to the F-35, which accounts for one of its largest revenue streams, Lockheed takes every opportunity to remind politicians that the airplane is manufactured in 46 states and is responsible for more than 125,000 jobs and $16.8 billion in economic impact to the U.S. economy. Signing up eight allied countries as partners provides additional insurance. Its quite frankly a brilliant strategy, said General Bogdan, acknowledging that it is effective even if it is not admirable. Political engineering has foiled any meaningful opposition on Capitol Hill, in the White House, or in the defense establishment.
Only our government can waste Billions and get poor results YET no one is responsible or losses their job for this complete failure.
Must be nice.
If it was up to me, entire project would've been scrapped 10+ years ago at first signs of failure and Lockheed sued for the money spent.
But that would make sense, no place for that in our Politics/Business relationships.
Can you blame them? If you tell them it's going to replace the harrier, they are going to want it to do what the harrier does.
Same goes for the A-10, oh you want it to replace my tank shredder? Then it better have a giant fucking depleted uranium spewing gatling gun on it.
One plane to Replace the F-14, F-15, F-16, F-18 makes sense. Throw in A-10 and Harrier into the mix and it's now a pretty lofty goal, even for DOD projects.
Oh yes the old 90 90 rule. So they are "95% complete" which in honest terms means they are about half way there. If testing has barely begun it is a lie to pretend otherwise about state of completion.Pretty interesting article, and gives a look at what has troubled the program from the start from generals, pilots, the man overseeing the program, and inside sources:
You've been warned, it's 7 pages long.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2013/09/joint-strike-fighter-lockheed-martin
WTF, isn't Vanity Fair like a pop/fashion type of magazine? Not sure how much trust I'll put in their reporting on an issue like this, but could be an interesting read.
well yeah it's not like you're in a hurry to defend yourself, the US will always be stronger and will probably intervene to stop whoever tries to invade canada since it's not in their interests.The Canadian Government has been trying to buy these stupid F-35s. Truth is there's really nothing wrong with the CF-18 Hornet aside from their age. It's still a perfectly decent fighter, especially since these planes are just mobile missile launch platforms now. We'd probably be better replacing them with something like the Eurofighter Typhoon, which is significantly cheaper. Or just replace them with the F-18 Super Hornet.
Given how much money has been wasted on these things, we really need to stop making as many full aircraft carriers and start using amphibious assault ships with F-35s as carriers.
Back in WWII days, they could design a plane, test it, and build a couple of thousand of them in the span of about two or three years :biggrin:
Lots of pro military jet people in this town. As it says in the bumper sticker around here "Jet Noise - The Sound of Freedom." Not that I'm proud to see that slogan.
What's disgusting is the total cost of the F-35 program could have supplied health care for every single American with money left over. I'm all for new technology, but they should have spent money on researching the engine configuration first, and THEN built the plane. They screwed up by building the entire plane first and then trying to get it to work.
What's disgusting is the total cost of the F-35 program could have supplied health care for every single American with money left over. I'm all for new technology, but they should have spent money on researching the engine configuration first, and THEN built the plane. They screwed up by building the entire plane first and then trying to get it to work.
Someone tell me if I'm thinking of the wrong plane. I was at Miramar in roughly 2004ish and saw them fly what I remember as a F35A. It was the coolest plane I've ever seen since it could stop on a dime, hover, and then break the sound barrier after a simulated bombing run. That thing still hasn't entered service??!?!
WTF, isn't Vanity Fair like a pop/fashion type of magazine? Not sure how much trust I'll put in their reporting on an issue like this, but could be an interesting read.
Yup. Government idiocy at work. Hopefully the F-35's technology finds it's way into dedicated role aircraft though. It's just too much in one plane though if it manages to work the way desired, it's one hell of a warplane. Except it's ridiculously expensive.
I'll wait until someone writes a book on this in 15 years.
Someone writing a seven page article with a predetermined conclusion is far from definitive and probably completely wrong.
heh and to think the idea of the F-35 was to have something cheaper than the F-22.