1. Pentagon's big budget F-35 fighter 'can't turn, can't climb,
can't run'
Minor fixes may get America's long term warplane flying once more soon -- for any while. Yet
fundamental design flaws could vex the F-35 for decades to end up being able to come, forcing the
actual Pentagon to be able to suspend flying far also often for the majority associated with its fighter
fleet, potentially jeopardizing U.S. national security.
The U.S. military offers grounded all its new F-35 Joint Strike Fighters following an incident on June
23, when one of the particular high-tech warplanes caught fire on the runway of the Florida air base.
The Actual no-fly order -- which affects a minimum of 50 F-35s with training along with test bases
throughout Florida, Arizona, California and also Maryland -- began on the evening of July 3 and also
continued via July 11.
All in which thrust leads to extreme amounts involving anxiety on engine components. It's simply no
surprise, then, that the F-35 frequently suffers engine malfunctions. Even your twenty tons
associated with thrust, the new radar-dodging plane is actually even now sluggish. the F-35 "is a
new dog ... overweight and also underpowered," in accordance with Winslow Wheeler, director of
the Straus Military Reform Project at the Project in Government Oversight within Washington.
Like it or not, the particular stealthy F-35 is the way in advance for U.S. air power. You will find few
alternatives. Lockheed Martin's engineers possess done millions of man-hours of work about the
design since development began within the 1990s. starting perform upon a brand new plane now
would force the particular Protection Department to wait a decade or more, in the actual program of
which various other countries may well pull in advance throughout jet design. Russia, China and
Japan are just about all working about new stealth fighter models.
PHOTO (INSERT 2): Workers can be viewed about the shifting series as well as forward fuselage
assembly places for that F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in Lockheed Martin Corp's factory located in Fort
Worth, Texas, October 13, 2011. REUTERS/Lockheed Martin/Randy A. Crites/Handout
For starters, your Lockheed Martin-built F-35 -- which usually can avoid sensor detection thanks to
its special shape and also coating -- merely fails extremely well. the Pentagon provides needed to
temporarily ground F-35s simply no fewer when compared with 13 occasions since 2007, mostly due
to problems with most the plane's Pratt & Whitney-made F135 engine, throughout particular, using
the engines' turbine blades. The Actual stand-downs lasted at most of the a couple of weeks.
2. "The repeated problems using the exact same section of your motor may become indications of a
severe design along with structural problem with all the F135 engine," stated Johan Boeder, a new
Dutch aerospace expert as well as editor of the online publication JSF News.
PHOTO (INSERT 3): Workers may be seen about the relocating range and also forward fuselage
assembly places for that F-35 Joint Strike Fighter with Lockheed Martin Corp's factory located in
Fort Worth, Texas, October 13, 2011. REUTERS/Lockheed Martin/Randy A. Crites/Handout
PHOTO (TOP): F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter is seen in the Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent
River, Maryland, January 20, 2012. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
PHOTO (INSERT 1): three F-35 Joint Strike Fighters (rear to front) AF-2, AF-3 and also AF-4, can be
viewed flying more than Edwards Air Force Base, December 10, 2011. REUTERS/Lockheed
Martin/Darin Russell/Handout
3. Yet the actual F-35 can be on the correct
track to turn out in order to be simply by way the particular military's nearly all numerous warplane.
The idea has been designed to replace just about all existing fighters in the Air Force and Marine
Corps and also complement the Navy's current F/A-18 jets. the Pentagon intends to acquire
approximately 2,400 of the radar-evading F-35s throughout coming decades, with a cost of more
than $400 billion.
That's since the F-35 will be complex -- the
effect with the Air Force, Marines and also Navy almost all adding features for the simple design. in
airplane design, such complexity equals weight. Your F-35 is actually extraordinarily heavy for a
single-engine plane, weighing just as much as 35 tons having a full load regarding fuel.
By comparison, the particular older F-15 fighter weighs 40 tons. Nevertheless it has a couple of
engines. In Order To remain reasonably fast and maneuverable, your F-35?s sole F135 motor must
create absolutely no less than 20 tons of thrust -- rendering it history's most potent fighter motor.
In 2008, 2 analysts in the RAND Corporation, a California think-tank that works closely with almost
all the military, programmed a pc simulation for you to test out your F-35?s fighting capacity in the
hypothetical air war with China. Your outcomes were startling.
Americans should be worried.
Pratt & Whitney has totally redesigned the F135 within an attempt to finish its reputation frequent
failures. but there's just a lot engineers could do. in a new controversial move through the early
stages with the F-35?s development, the particular Pentagon chose to in shape your plane with one
4. engine instead of two. Sticking together with one motor can help keep down the cost of the new
plane. However inside the F-35?s case, the actual decision proved self-defeating.
All these F-35s sitting idle could be a new preview of your future where potentially 1000s of the
Pentagon's warplanes can't reliably fly.
The Pentagon sounds guardedly optimistic in regards to be able to the existing F-35 grounding.
"Additional inspections associated with F-35 engines happen to be ordered," Rear Admiral John
Kirby, a military spokeman said, "and go back to flight will be decided according to inspection
outcomes as well as analysis associated with engineering data."
"The F-35 is actually double-inferior," John Stillion along with Harold Scott Perdue concluded inside
their written introduction to the war game, later leaked towards the press. The Actual new plane
"can't turn, can't climb, can't run," they warned.
But there's real purpose to become able to worry. The Particular June incident may reflect serious
design flaws which could render the particular F-35 unsuitable regarding combat.
To be fair, your Pentagon routinely grounds
warplanes on a temporary basis following accidents and malfunctions to purchase investigators time
to identify problems and to give engineers time to fix them.
