The Pentagon will have to live with limits on F-35's supersonic flights

[turbinetree]

By: David B. Larter , Valerie Insinna , and Aaron Mehta ?

WASHINGTON — An issue that risks damage to the F-35’s tail section if the aircraft needs to maintain supersonic speeds is not worth fixing and will instead be addressed by changing the operating parameters, the F-35 Joint Program Office told Defense News in a statement Friday.

The deficiency, first reported by Defense News in 2019, means that at extremely high altitudes, the U.S. Navy’s and Marine Corps’ versions of the F-35 jet can only fly at supersonic speeds for short bursts of time before there is a risk of structural damage and loss of stealth capability.

The problem may make it impossible for the Navy’s F-35C to conduct supersonic intercepts.

“This issue was closed on December 17, 2019 with no further actions and concurrence from the U.S. services,” the F-35 JPO statement read. “The [deficiency report] was closed under the category of ‘no plan to correct,’ which is used by the F-35 team when the operator value provided by a complete fix does not justify the estimated cost of that fix.

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2020/04/24/the-pentagon-will-have-to-live-with-limits-on-f-35s-supersonic-flights/

Bullshit this can be fixed...........the team Lockheed didn't see this coming during the design and flight testing phase.........

[AllaN01Bear]

1. that peice over rated , over hyped ,peice of junk.

[turbinetree]

3. They knew of this issue almost a year ago and further back.....Lockheed should be eating this, cost.

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2019/06/12/the-pentagon-is-battling-the-clock-to-fix-serious-unreported-f-35-problems/

[gratuitous]

2. Quick! Throw more money at it!

The real genius of the F-35 Flying Turkey is that the contracts for various portions of the project were spread out to something like 46 states. You can't stop this project because too many jobs in too many districts are at stake. The F-35 may never fly but will surely never die.

[Newest Reality]

4. Oh come on...

What do you want for around $107-million bucks a piece? Perfection? That's so bargain basement.

We still have a nice, bloated MICbudget, so throw some money in the turbines, perhaps? It might work. We do have plenty of money to burn, just not much at all for people.

(I didn't see the price tag mentioned in the article. Maybe I missed it.)

[turbinetree]

5. They didn't report it.............but we have this information to consider from the "source"

https://www.f35.com/about/cost

[msongs]

6. bernie birds lol nt

[flotsam]

7. Ladies and Gentlemen I give you our "next generation" fighters

The F-22 Asphyxiator and the F-35 Rebooter...