Then again, the owls in the bog for Denmark’s new fighter aircraft, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
A new report from the u.s. department of defense, Pentagon, shares the one slap after the other out for the most expensive weapons program.
According to Bloomberg, which has got their hands on the report before its official release, there are still a number of problems with the aircraft, which, since the development started in the late 90’s, has been hit by a number of challenges and cost overruns.
Among the problems, as the report mentions, is …
… it takes a longer time to repair and prepare the aircraft, such that the objective of the individual aircraft must be available 80 percent of the time, has not been achieved yet. According to the report is now ‘significantly below’ the objective.
… to security holes in the software have not yet been closed, although the former has been pointed out.
… to the aircraft’s main system, ALIS, is still not delivering at the desired level, which have a significant effect on how the aircraft rådighedsgrad.’
… that klargøringspersonel and pilots on a daily basis must contend with the widespread data problems.
… that the tests performed by the US Air Force in september showed that the accuracy in air-to-ground-attacks are ‘unacceptable’.
War & disasters – 29. sep. 2018 – at. 19:57 F-35 crash in the U.S.
the F-35 aircraft has been hit by numerous problems and cost overruns in the course of his roughly twenty-year long development. Photo: US Air Force
Additionally, the report shows that the B-version of the F-35 aircraft so far can cope with significantly fewer hours in the air than the projected 8000 hours. According to the report, the actual hours ‘may be as low as 2100 [hours]’.
the F-35B’eren is developed for the US Marines. The aircraft can land vertically like a helicopter.
Denmark has purchased A version of the plane, that is the ‘normal’ version, as landing and taking off of runways on the ground.
in Addition, there is also a C version, which is developed for use on aircraft carriers.
It constituted us defence secretary, Patrick Shanahan aired earlier in the week his attitude to the F-35 aircraft.
– I’m leaning towards, that the taxpayer shall have the full value for their money. And the F-35’eren, I can unequivocally say, has great potential to provide better, he said, according to Business Insider.
At Lockheed Martin, which produces the F-35’eren, taking the management, however, allegedly not to the new report so heavily. To the company’s investors, the CEO Marillyn Hewson according to The Washington Post to have said that, even if the u.s. government is purchasing more F-15 aircraft, as it has been, so that isn’t going to affect the amount of F-35 aircraft, which the americans want to buy.
When the Extra Leaf in december 2017, visited the Lockheed Martin factory in Fort Worth, Texas, was the many problems, which through the ages has been with the F-35 aircraft, not something that worried the vice president Jack Crisler, since the problems according to him is a natural part of the development of a new fighter aircraft.
– The things here can be said of all the combat aircraft that has ever been produced. Also the F-16’s, he said at that time to the Extra Leaf and added:
This is a development programme. You build the plane, and then test it. And when you test it, you will find things that the pilots did not approve of, or that don’t live up to the specifications that we had agreed on to begin with, and then it must of course be fixed.
Extra Magazine talks with Lockheed Martin’s vice president Jack Crisler in december 2017. Photo: Stine Tidsvilde