100TH F-35
BEING BUILT, NONE YET OPERATIONAL
In January, the Lockheed Martin production facility in Fort
Worth, Texas, reported it was well along "in the final phase of building the
wings" of the 100th F-35 constructed by the Bethesda, Maryland, [3]company[3]. Of the first 99 F-35s, none is yet
operational.
The F-35 isn't even close to fully operational -- it can fly
only on sunny days. It can't fly
at night. And it can't fly in
clouds or near lightning. We know
this because the Pentagon tells us so, in a report written for the Secretary of
Defense by the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, J. Michael Gilmore,
dated February 15, 2013.
Although some media hyped the [4]report[4]
as a "leaked document," Gilmore clearly expected the report would become
public, since he included a description of its wide distribution within the
government, concluding with the reminder: "By law, I must provide Congress with
any test-related material it requests."
By March 5, Gilmore's report was on the internet and giving
the Canadian government pause about buying the plane at all. Of the other ten countries partnering
in F-35 development, Italy has already reduced the number of planes it will
eventually buy. Norway, Turkey,
and others are also having second thoughts -- as is even the U.S. Leahy indicates in his letter that "the
jet is too costly to proceed
with purchases at today's planned levels," which are about
2,400 planes at a currently projected cost of $120 million each, give or take
$30 million.
Gilmore's report covers the F-35 training program at Eglin
Air Force Base in Florida for two months in the fall of 2012, a program
originally scheduled to begin in August 2011, but the F-35 wasn't ready
then. Even a year later, the
training program "was limited by the current restrictions of the aircraft." The program partially trained 4 pilots
in 46 days.
IF THE PILOT CAN
EJECT, HE'LL BE LUCKY NOT TO DROWN
The report's executive summary gives a sense of what some of
the "current restrictions" of the F-35 are:
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