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The F-35 Fighter Plane Is Even More of a Mess Than You Thought

posted by janrinok on Monday June 02 2014, @11:36AM   Printer-friendly
from the buddy-can-you-spare-me-a-dime? dept.

AnonTechie writes:

The US military's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft is proving to be a pain in the neck in more ways than one. Not only did the Pentagon spend almost $400 billion to buy 2,400 aircraft - about twice as much as it cost to put a man on the moon - the F-35 program is 7 years behind schedule and $163 billion over budget. This at a time when cuts in the defense budget are forcing the Pentagon to shrink the size of the military. CBS 60 Minutes took a closer look at the troubled fighter plane a few months back, but their rebroadcast on Sunday evening seems like as good a reason as any to revisit one of the biggest ongoing budget debacles in U.S. military memory. David Martin gets an inside look at what makes the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter the most expensive weapons system in history.

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 02 2014, @06:22PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 02 2014, @06:22PM (#50343)
    I was waiting for the drone fanboys to come along to remind us that air superiority and multirole attack aircraft are currently obsolete. Please, do supply a list of all the engagements where air superiority has been achieved through UCAVs alone. I won't hold my breath. But try again in maybe 25 years...

  • (Score: 1) by alioth on Tuesday June 03 2014, @09:16AM

    by alioth (3279) on Tuesday June 03 2014, @09:16AM (#50569)

    That war hasn't been fought, so of course there will be no statistics.

    But if for example a UAV costs a tenth of a manned fighter, you can just zergling rush your opponent. You don't have to expend resources picking up shot down pilots, and your opponent is not only losing aircraft but personnel too.