Multi-Billion Dollar F-35 Fleet Grounded

Yeah, FREEDOM, hear ya – we need to be spending those billions on fighter jets that don’t fly, not on silly stuff like sustainable energy and clean air. That’s just crazy talk there.

America needs new combat jets for our 21st century. But, there is no new revenue. Congress must consider a pro-active energy policy. Marcellus is abundant in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York. This natural gas provides a clean and domestic source of fuel. Congress must decide on national cash inflows to balance the federal budget.

What do you expecect – by contnuing the process of awarding bids to the lowest bidder !!!

Will the newest, best, greatest, F-35 be used in combat like the previous newest, best, greatest F-22? By that I mean never because they’re too valuable to risk losing.

Funny, a 1 Trillion $ weapons system that is the future of our air power, as long as we don’t try to fly it. I am sure all of the Taliban and Al Qaeda fighter pilots are shaking in their boots!! Oh, I forgot, they don’t have any fighter pilots, or even any airplanes to shoot down. Hey, maybe we should have invested the money for the “most expensive weapons program ever” into something that actually works in the war we are currently involved in?? Like more special forces? More drones? Better equipment for our soldiers? Or how about taking care of our veterans who have been in combat, instead of the guys that buy golf time with our senators. And we wonder why we are broke?

I’m trying to decide which is worse: spending billions on planes that don’t fly, or trillions on phony wars that don’t affect stability or peace on this planet. I choose phony wars/threats. They maim and kill. Multi-bazzillion dollar planes that don’t work can’t hurt anyone because they can’t fly. They can’t join the phony war for freedom and democracy, they just keep costing more trying to get them to work so they can join the phony affray as soon as possible to further protect us from the never ending threat of… Communism? Faded. Terrorism? Alive and well, and let’s keep it that way. I mean, the most effective weapon of mass destruction used by terrorists to date was our own planes, passenger planes, airliners flown by terrorists into the World Trade Center. Those planes worked, and they didn’t cost billions in cost overruns to make them effective. Terrorists don’t have state-of-the-art fighters costing billions, they don’t need them. What they need is dollars diverted from our own infrastructure to develop planes that don’t work to combat a phony threat and put billions into the bank accounts of the people who have sold us the threat. Now that’s freedom and democracy. The god given right of the most powerful and richest one-percent of our populace to protect their money and lives–and for our loyalty and flag waiving, they’ll take us along for the ride. They might lower our taxes so we can afford some of the luxuries in life, like food, clothing, and shelter. If I fall into a cost overrun, I loose my home. I can’t go to the government and say, “Whoops, this is going to cost TEN times as much as I said.” Then they hand me a blank check to cover my mistake, and theirs. After all, I’m just a citizen. What kind of an investment am I compared to a multi-billion dollar fighter that can wipe out hundreds of enemies of freedom and democracy in one multi-million-dollar swoop? If they can get it to fly. I can’t be the only one out here that can see the long ride we’re being taken on, am I?

no

Let GE handle it. They are ready willing and able to provide top notch quality engines.

All right folks this is one subject where you are way over your heads. If you you read the article you know that the issue is a crack in one of the compressor blades of the engine of one aircraft. The grounding is precautionary to determine if this is a systemic issue or a one off. When you push the state of the art, things like this always happen. All advanced aircraft from the Sopwith Camel to the Space Shuttle have had similar issues and similar groundings. It is all part of the program and completely expected. As far as the usefulness of these aircraft is concerned, that all depends on who you are fighting. If it’s the Taliban then they have no use. If it is Russia, China or North Korea they are invaluable. The F-22 is currently unmatched as the premier 5th generation air superiority fighter. Air superiority is the most significant aspect of any battlefield. The F-35 is a multirole fighter with STOVL/VTOL and limited supercruise capability. The F-35 will also be exported to many of our allies who see this aircraft as the mainstay of their fighter fleet. It is true that these planes are horribly expensive. We will gripe about that expense right up until the day that we need them. Then we will praise the names of the people that designed, flew, proposed and paid for them. I see one poster who discussed the F-15SE and F/A-18 Super Hornet. These are excellent aircraft. But they are a generation behind. Nevertheless it is anticipated that the Air Force and Navy will continue to operate older aircraft (F-15′s and Super Hornets) for many years to come. However the Navy’s new attack drones may take over the attack role. The bottom line is that this is a technical argument. One must look at the order of battle of potential adversaries and then compare that against the forces that can be projected to the battlefield. It is not an easy exercise. It is not to be done by amateurs. Even highly trained soldiers and strategists frequently get the answers wrong. In World War II and in the Korean war, initially at least, the U.S. fielded inferior fighters and it cost us dearly. If we have learned anything from the modern wars, that rule is “technology wins wars.” We do not want to be sending our warfighters into the field with equipment inferior to any potential enemy.