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Air Force Declares F-35 Ready for Duty -- Sort Of

posted by n1 on Wednesday August 03 2016, @10:26PM   Printer-friendly
from the flying-pork dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The US Air Force today announced that its first operational squadron of F-35A Lightning II fighters is ready for combat duty. The announcement was made just a day into the five-month period that the Air Force had been given to reach operational levels with the 34th Fighter Squadron, based at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.

The "initial capability" declaration comes after two Air Force F-35As joined two Marine Corps F-35s at July's Royal International Air Tattoo at the United Kingdom's Fairford Royal Air Force base and after an accelerated pace of operational tests for the 34th over the past few months. The first F-35A aircraft were delivered to the 34th in September of last year. They've been modified several times after delivery, including getting software updates to the avionics that have eliminated some of the "instability" problems previously experienced (including radar system crashes that required reboots while in flight). Since the most recent software upgrades, the squadron has flown 88 individual aircraft sorties without a software problem, according to an Air Combat Command statement.

[...] However, as stealthy as it is, the F-35A currently has a limited punch. The aircraft won't be able to carry the full suite of weapons used by the F-16—the aircraft it is intended to replace—until 2020, when the Air Force begins accepting aircraft at full-rate production of 150 per year.

Eventually, the Air Force plans to purchase up to 1,800 F-35As at a final price tag of $100 million per aircraft (plus the buried costs of the long-delayed development of the aircraft). The total cost of the program to the US and its allies is expected to exceed $500 billion (~£375 billion).

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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by takyon on Wednesday August 03 2016, @10:52PM

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Wednesday August 03 2016, @10:52PM (#383804) Journal

    Better find some enemies with planes soon.

    Bad idea if you want to live: [news.com.au]

    On the surface such broad capability sounds like a bargain buy: Last month, the first of Australia’s 75 F-35s was delivered to a training field in the United States.
    Such diverse demands, however, come at a heavy price: The F-35 in its current form has less armament, shorter range, less manoeuvrability, a slower rate of climb and lower speeds than many of the specialist aircraft it is supposed to replace.
    The Australian Defence Force has been approached for comment on this criticism, but is yet to reply.
    Such is the effect that last week, one air force official involved in the F-35 development program reportedly told US media: “The F-35 will, in my opinion, be 10 years behind legacy fighters when it achieves (operation) … it will not have the weapons or sensor capability (for close air support) missions that legacy multi-role fighters had by the mid-2000s.”

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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday August 03 2016, @11:00PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday August 03 2016, @11:00PM (#383806)

    But it the Bad Guys are flying a B-29 at 20000 ft (or a 767 at 500ft), they're toast, for sure!!!!!

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 03 2016, @11:08PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 03 2016, @11:08PM (#383810)

    That's why the next war will go nuclear very quickly. NATO can't win anymore by conventional means.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by driverless on Thursday August 04 2016, @05:27AM

      by driverless (4770) on Thursday August 04 2016, @05:27AM (#383945)

      The next war, and the one after that, and the one after that, will be against insurgents with AK47s and IEDs and the will to take more casualties than the US (or whoever) ever can. Whether you have an F35 in that situation is irrelevant. In fact the only thing you really need is not enough infrastructure for an opponent to have anything to target.

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by mhajicek on Thursday August 04 2016, @01:18AM

    by mhajicek (51) on Thursday August 04 2016, @01:18AM (#383864)

    Lighting II, more like Lame Duck. It's a jack of all trades, master of none. It has no strengths to play against an enemies weaknesses. Even it's stealth is of limited advantage and has a shelf life; radars are already being deployed by some US enemies that can see it clearly.

    --
    The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek