Friday, 17 July 2015

The F-35: Is the world's most expensive weapons program worth it?

The F-35: Is the world's most expensive weapons program worth it?

Three years behind schedule and some $200 billion over its original budget, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is finally set to become operational this month.
The fighter jet has been in development for nearly 15 years, weathered half a dozen years of testing and experienced myriad hardware malfunctions and software glitches along the way. Once it's declared ready for combat, it will be the most expensive weapons system in world history.
It will also be the most advanced in the sky. The F-35, also referred to as the Joint Strike Fighter, is touted as the most lethal and versatile aircraft of the modern era. It combines advanced stealth capabilities, radar-jamming abilities, supersonic speed, extreme agility and state-of-the-art sensor fusion technology.
But after all that time and money, supporters are no closer to quelling the detractors who blast the F-35 as a waste.
The fifth-generation stealth fighter plane was originally conceived in 2001 to upgrade the U.S. military's aging tactical fleet to ensure that rivals couldn't challenge the United States in the air.
"Air superiority is an essential tenet in our national defense strategy," said Rep. Jeff Miller, a Florida Republican whose district is home to the nation's primary F-35 training facility. "We have a whole host of aging air platforms, some with technology dating back to the '60s and '70s."

Program costs and setbacks

The price tag for all of these benefits, however, is nearly $400 billion for 2,457 planes -- almost twice the initial estimate. To maintain and operate the JSF program over the course of its lifetime, the Pentagon will invest nearly $1 trillion, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
And it could climb even higher, as the path to its launch has already been strewn with schedule delays and disappointing test results -- and more could be on the way.
On June 29, the website War is Boring published excerpts of a test pilot's leaked report finding that the F-35 was "at a distinct energy disadvantage" in a mock dogfight in January and unable to turn quickly enough to engage the plane it is expected to replace, the F-16.
Lockheed Martin said War is Boring's presentation of the pilot's report is incomplete, insisting the aircraft used during this test was not equipped with the software, weapons system or stealth coating that make up today's production-ready F-35s.

No comments:

Post a Comment