The time to repair a part has averaged 172 days — “twice the program’s objective” — the Government Accountability Office, Congress’s watchdog agency, found. The shortages are “degrading readiness” because the fighter jets “were unable to fly about 22 percent of the time” from January through August for lack of needed parts.
Maintaining the F-35 fleet will become more challenging as the Pentagon prepares for what the manager of the program has called a “tsunami” of new production toward an eventual planned U.S. fleet of 2,456 planes plus more than 700 additional planes to be sold to allies.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
Where are all the Trumptards? Come on guys – defend this shit.
Hates big gubmint – check
Hates pork Barrel – check
Lives in fantasy world – check
Completely denies the nuance of reality – check
Is full of shit – check
Votes for an imbecile to fuck everything up – check
Congratulations you’re a Trumptard…..collect your prize from your nearest Russian Consulate. Oh, and don’t pass GO.
Yeah but your just a commie!
While you are here tell me why Obama didn’t cancel this and why he defended it.
For Trump it is too late to cancel F-35. The hope is that in a few years its software will be ready for all missions and it will have better efficiency and economy with engine upgrades.
I don’t like the sunk cost fallacy but what are the other options? Superhornets aren’t stealthy and can’t use any of the software the F35 uses.
Here’s a good example of what the F35 can do: Act as a stealthy over the horizon drone that relays information to boats that can launch missiles over the horizon. A stealthy drone guiding missiles over the horizon. In a few years it won’t be guiding missiles but will be relaying ship positions to a rail gun and you will send hyper velocity shells over the horizon.
Pretty standard stuff. When F-15s came off the production line, the USAF decided to save money by not buying spares. I remember cannibalizing nose tires between launches, engines, etc. The USAF decided to save money by not buying the depot mx tech orders for the C-17, so we’re stuck with Boeing for the rest of the life of the aircraft. Eventually, the pain will increase enough to throw money at the problem, at twice or thrice the original cost. But, when you’re restricted to continuing resolutions for several years, crap like this happens all too frequently because no long-range purchasing/contracting can take place.
So is maintenance behind or in front of production? And what is the combat readiness of the other hi/tech jets like the F-22. Instead of just putting the F-22 figures out there, the article need to give us some comparisons.