His post is chock full of utter bullshit. 😂
Really dip#*%*? How about the word of a fecking AF General
militarywatchmagazine.com
“The U.S. Air Force’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategy, Integration, and Requirements, Lieutenant General Clint Hinote, provided new insight into the state of the F-35 stealth fighter program in an interview with
Defense News.
The general stated that there was no value in including the Air Force’s F-35A fighter fleet in war games simulating future high-end conflicts because it was highly unlikely that the troubled stealth fighter would be able to make a contribution. “It wouldn’t be worth it," he said, as.”every [F-35] fighter that rolls off the line today is a fighter that we wouldn’t even bother putting into these scenarios” - indicating that serious improvements to the aircraft would be needed to provide any viability for combat against a near peer adversary. The general also cited the F-35As limited range, which in the context of a war in East Asia was a major limiting factor.
General Hinote’s interview followed multiple reports pointing to the fact that the F-35, despite entering service in late 2014, is still years away from being ready for high intensity combat against a high end adversary. One of the more widely publicised of these reports was
published in the National Interest by Marine Captain Dan Grazier, and highlighted “a host of alarming problems” and ‘the F-35’s lack of progress in nearly every essential area” to bring it closer to a combat ready state. Among many other issues, these included continued malfunctions for “most combat-crucial computer systems,” major cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and “so many cracks” requiring “so many repairs and modifications” to Navy and Air Force variants of the aircraft - problems with which would prevent them from even flying supersonically.“
The F-35 program has been subject to growing criticism, with the last holder of the post of Secretary of Defense under the Donald Trump administration, Christopher C. Miller, referring to the program as a “monster” the military had created and
to the fighter itself as “a piece of…” Former Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain previously referred to the F-35 as “a textbook example’ of the country’s ‘broken defence acquisition system,” stating in a briefing to the Senate: “the F-35 program’s record of performance has been both a scandal and a tragedy with respect to cost, schedule and performance.” The fighter’s underperformance was criticised by sources ranging from military think tanks such as the NSN and the RAND Corporation, to organisations such as the Project on Government Oversight and individuals such as the Pentagon’s chief weapons tester Michael Gilmore and Marine Captain Dan Grazier. The Pentagon repeatedly highlighted that the F-35
suffered from poor reliability and that the aircraft’s high operational costs could make it
unaffordable in the numbers initially intended to be purchased, with technical challenges
repeatedly delaying the Pentagon’s granting of approval for full scale production which has yet to be granted. The U.S. Air Force is reportedly seriously considering
deep cuts to planned orders for the aircraft, and instead acquiring cheaper and simpler jets possibly
based on the F-16 design - an aircraft which first flew in 1974.”
ottawacitizen.com
