Pentagon ‘dumbs down’ aviation tests for F-35

[Misfit]

http://rt.com/usa/news/stealth-fight...-pentagon-027/

America’s latest stealth fighter jet is too heavy and slow to pass performance tests. Instead of improving the aircraft, the Pentagon has decided to lower its expectations. Experts say the F-35 is more vulnerable than the jet it’s replacing.

Simply put, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) doesn’t go as fast, turn as sharply or handle as gracefully as it should. But instead of bringing in a team of aviation experts to fix the problem, the Pentagon has chosen to accept that the jet underperforms.

The news comes after US taxpayers worked to pay for the stealth fighter program’s $1-trillion price tag – the most expensive in US history. It’s the second time in a year that the US government has eased the performance requirements of the aircraft.

[Lurk]

Originally Posted by Misfit

http://rt.com/usa/news/stealth-fight...-pentagon-027/

America’s latest stealth fighter jet is too heavy and slow to pass performance tests. Instead of improving the aircraft, the Pentagon has decided to lower its expectations. Experts say the F-35 is more vulnerable than the jet it’s replacing.

Simply put, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) doesn’t go as fast, turn as sharply or handle as gracefully as it should. But instead of bringing in a team of aviation experts to fix the problem, the Pentagon has chosen to accept that the jet underperforms.

The news comes after US taxpayers worked to pay for the stealth fighter program’s $1-trillion price tag – the most expensive in US history. It’s the second time in a year that the US government has eased the performance requirements of the aircraft.

Sounds an awful lot like the last time teh Pentagon tried to produce a multi-Service, multi-mission fighter/bomber/surveillance/attack jet. The F-4 was big, slow, and (without all the over the horizon avionics later) vulnerable.

[Gilligan (Premo)]

The portion of medium-term defense spending that the F-35 is predicted to suck up is dowright remarkable. Talk about the "elephant in the room"..it dwarfs every other program.

[b23hqb]

Dumbing down the jet. I'm all for dumbing down the qualifications to fly the thing. A great opportunity for EEO and quota pilots.

Then stop funding after x many crashes/combat losses with loss of x many pilots = inefficient aircraft with inefficient pilots.

A drop in the bucket of our exploding deficit, which our current POC POTUS just loves.

Sad, for sure.

[somdforever]

Originally Posted by Lurk

Sounds an awful lot like the last time teh Pentagon tried to produce a multi-Service, multi-mission fighter/bomber/surveillance/attack jet. The F-4 was big, slow, and (without all the over the horizon avionics later) vulnerable.

The F-4 was anything but slow. It had a top speed of more than 1500 mph! While it was big, and it did have other disadvantages, it had the capability to deploy many different weapons. During the Vietnam war, many pilots earned Ace status (5 or more air to air combat kills) flying this great aircraft.

[b23hqb]

It was a great aircraft, that left a path that even a blind man could follow.

Fortunately, it was just, barely, ahead of the anti-F-4 curve, which worked during that time, most of the time, anyway.

It was fast for its time, which enabled most of the pilots to return home, most of the time. But certainly not that invisible to enemy radars and SAM's.

[Gilligan (Premo)]

Years ago I worked with a fella that was an F-4 pilot in 'nam. He had a funny way of showing his love for that crate, often denigrating it as "the pig" and calling it a "truck", whilst at the same time speaking glowingly about how tough, survivable and reliable it was.

[glhs837]

Not funny at all, every person that has a relationship with any aircraft (and I imagine a ship too:)) does the same thing. Like brothers who always talk smack to each other but would take a bullet for them. You spend years entrusting your life to a machine, counting on it to get you there and back, you develop a love hate thing, love the things it does well while hating the things it doesnt do.

And I never flew in combat, I imagine that intensifies it quite a bit.