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Lockheed F-35’s Tally of Flaws Tops 800 as ‘New Issues’ Surface
Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 jet remains marred by more than 800 unresolved software and hardware deficiencies of varying severity that could undercut readiness, missions or maintenance, according to updated statistics released Tuesday by the Pentagon’s testing office and Congress’s watchdog agency. (www.bloomberg.com) Altro...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Here we go with an airplane that no one can love. These things are laughable for combat. Does not one thing well. A generic trash can.
Sure seems as if we move forward in design/engineering/releasing new fighters, more and more issues crop up. Likely because of backdoor politics / deals, pushing to get the thing in service before it can be thoroughly tested and vetted causing even more issues and lengthy delays. Sure don't seem to hear of this kind of trouble with Russian, French, or Italian jets.
Anybody remember the original Robocop? OCP manufactured the ED-109 with the premise that they had replacement parts contracts that were worth $ Billions $ so "who cares if it works?"
That's where we are with the F35
That's where we are with the F35
15+ years and still problems?? This was supposed to be a light fighter to replace the F16...but when the AF figured out they weren't gonna get anything else for awhile they loaded it up with pie-the-sky untested systems..
... and, I'd bet the Chinese and Russians know everything they need to know about after 15+ years....
... and, I'd bet the Chinese and Russians know everything they need to know about after 15+ years....
A complex piece of aeronautical equipment designed by a congressional committee to satisfy their respective constituencies. Doomed to this fate from the beginning. We're not talking requirements creep here, we're talking requirements explosions on a thermonuclear scale.
Compare with another company product - SR-71 - that was a point design with no more than 10 customer contacts. I was going to say you could count them on 2 hands and IIRC it was a 1-hand customer count. And, they were competent aerospace experts not political weasels.
As a former Lockheed employee in another, very distant arm of the company I never wanted to get close to this as the politics were just too stinky and sticky.
I have friends who worked on the F22 and then the F35 who said they tried to solve/avoid on the F35 some of the problems they had on the F22. For one, a lot of the electronics boxes on the F22 was designed using active components (ICs, etc.) that were on sundown lists before the plane flew. Switching parts, boards, boxes, etc., is harder than it looks and anybody who thinks it's easy is either stupid or needs professional help.
The low observable requirement really complicates lots of stuff - sometimes by orders of magnitude. Switch-mode PSs used to convert voltages are RFI noisy as hell and that noise sneaks out all over the place often despite herculean efforts making the plane a flying RF source that is easy to find and, obviously, shoot at.
It's really a marvel that it flies at all.
Compare with another company product - SR-71 - that was a point design with no more than 10 customer contacts. I was going to say you could count them on 2 hands and IIRC it was a 1-hand customer count. And, they were competent aerospace experts not political weasels.
As a former Lockheed employee in another, very distant arm of the company I never wanted to get close to this as the politics were just too stinky and sticky.
I have friends who worked on the F22 and then the F35 who said they tried to solve/avoid on the F35 some of the problems they had on the F22. For one, a lot of the electronics boxes on the F22 was designed using active components (ICs, etc.) that were on sundown lists before the plane flew. Switching parts, boards, boxes, etc., is harder than it looks and anybody who thinks it's easy is either stupid or needs professional help.
The low observable requirement really complicates lots of stuff - sometimes by orders of magnitude. Switch-mode PSs used to convert voltages are RFI noisy as hell and that noise sneaks out all over the place often despite herculean efforts making the plane a flying RF source that is easy to find and, obviously, shoot at.
It's really a marvel that it flies at all.
Having been an electrical/software engineer on one of the teams developing avionics systems for the F-35, rest assured the components and development processes used in the design were state of the art for the early 2000's. Future proofing was integral to the design knowing that technological capabilities were progressing at light speed and would need to be incorporated many times during the aircraft's lifetime . F-35 is a beast of a weapons platform, not a pure dog fight fighter like F-16 or any other 4th gen fighter in the US arsenal. It has it's problems for sure but give the platform time, one day it will prove it's worth, particularly while operating with the new UCAV platforms(drones) being developed. As an advanced adversary, I wouldn't want to take on a flight of F-35's integrated with a pack of drones.
given it 15+ years...need more time???
+1