Translated by Nikolai and captioned by Leo.
The fifth-generation fighter jet, as the American imitators continue to stubbornly call the F-35 Lightning II, turned out to be incapable to go supersonic. The Pentagon was forced to officially admit the problem and recommend to the pilots to fly at subsonic speeds. However, all this does nothing to prevent Washington to flog the fifth-generation jet to its vassals at three times the price.
In case you forgot, the brave stars-and-stripes warmongers are making Napoleonic plans for the Arctic. Text in frame: Battle for the Arctic: Americans talk, Russia acts. And in the context of these plans, as I said before, the Pentagon threatens to move its Wunderwaffen – the F-35 jets – to Alaska. I assume all our subscribers are interested in the topic of weapons are aware that this junk is terribly expensive and completely useless against Russia or China. For instance, the F-35 is a fifth-generation jet only on paper, and in fact it can break into pieces when reaching supersonic speed.
Source: Defense News
“Destruction of the fuselage in the air, increased vulnerability to the opponent’s air forces, and low combat effectiveness – the USA admitted another flaw in the F-35 Lightning-II fifth-generation jets. It turned out that the most advanced American jets cannot fly at supersonic speed. The Pentagon has not yet taken radical measures, only forbidding to fly the F-35 too fast.”
I wonder, what kind of radical measures can the American ass-kickers take? The F-35 project already consumed several hundreds of billion dollars. And the total cost of the project, as the conscientious BBC reported, is completely off the scale.
Source: BBC
“The F-35 fighter jet development program is scheduled until the year 2070, and its total cost is estimated at 1.5 trillion USD.”
And now, suddenly, this supposedly top of the line machine, has such crappy characteristics, that special recommendations for the pilots are needed so that they don’t ditch themselves and the F-35 they are responsible for.
Source: RIA Novosti
“The American generals calculated the expenses, thought it over and simply changed the tactic of utilization of the new machines by limiting the time of high-speed flight to a minimum. In effect, this means only one thing: the most modern jet, which is the pride of the USAF, lost one of its main advantages – the possibility of supersonic interception of airborne targets.”
“Nonetheless, the people in the Pentagon are staying positive and are assuring that supersonic mode is not that important for the F-35. For example, retired pilot and Hudson Institute analyst, Bryan Clark, is of the opinion that limiting the high-speed flight times will on the contrary provide the F-35 with a serious tactical advantage. According to him, flying too fast makes the jet noticeable on the radars of the enemy. Additionally, there will now be no need to burn tons of fuel during boosts, and the flight distance will be considerably increased. And the lack of speed will be compensated by the fact that the jet will destroy the enemy before being spotted.”
No, this is not crazy talk. This is an attempt to sell the stink from soiled pants as a tactical advantage that will help to scare off the opponent. Because of course the respectable Pentagon people cannot admit that they simply accepted a kickback from the USA Military Industrial Complex, who is accustomed to siphon off the billions from the budget and demands more.
Who was responsible for the quality inspection of the F-35? Who looked the other way at the fact that the strain from supersonic flight can destroy the fuselage shell and the tail of the plane as well as the radars installed near the tail? These people most probably have names, ranks and duty positions. They also have influence in power circles allowing them to evade responsibility for obviously corrupt actions.
As Russian experts correctly observe: since in America: “everything is just pretend except for money” [Ed. – Quote from the Russian film “Brother 2” (2000)], the Pentagon isn’t striving to correct the mistakes they made, but to compensate their losses by foisting their flying junk on their vassals.
Source: RIA Novosti
“Despite the many shortcomings of the F-35, the Americans are actively selling it to their allies. According to the Academy of Military Science professor and political analyst Sergey Sudakov, the year 2019 was a year of particularly massive and aggressive advertisement for this huge budget fighter jet.”
“The USA assured that the F-35 is the most modern aerial vehicle. It is presented as fully corresponding to the fifth generation. But actually, it is an extremely raw and unrefined machine, and there is no basis for talking about any sort of breakthrough in military aviation. Nonetheless, using blackmail and threats, the USA forced their partners to buy the F-35s. For example, several tens of jets were forced on Poland, who was not at all eager to buy them.”
Twisting the arms of their lackeys so as to make them pay for American ham-handiness is a standard tactic of Washingtonian effective managers.
Source: RIA Novosti
“According to Sudakov, another myth of the Pentagon has been debunked – the idea that this fighter jet will be the ‘killer’ of the Russian S-400 “Triumph” AAMS. Indeed, in order to evade a missile from the S-300 or S-400, a jet has to be supersonic. The expert is of the opinion that the Americans should have recalled all these planes from the market long ago.”
Because, as Sudakov notes, “Otherwise it is a fraud – as the declared characteristics do not correspond to the real ones. However, I believe the USA will not take such actions. The most that can be hoped for is a limited admission of design errors. In Washington, they understand that a recall will lead to a chain reaction including other types of weapons already sold. I am certain that in the near future the USA will intensify the blackmail and pressure on their allies and force them to keep the current contracts.”
You see, the Americans are not risking anything. In fact, they understand perfectly that there will not be any kind of war against Russia. Therefore, the praised F-35 will not get a baptism by fire in a real fight with a worthy opponent. The most that it can be used for in the future is firing missiles at barefoot rifle-carrying people, as does Israel, who in 2018 advertised a supposedly real instance of combat deployment of F-35. [News headline in frame – ‘This is not a toy’: Israel announces first combat use of F-35 fighter jet.]
To open fire on the Syrian territory from Lebanese airspace and immediately bail out is not exactly the same as participating in a real engagement. Even then, after the deployment of the Russian air defense systems in Syria, Israeli attacks have quietly cooled down. So, it is in fact possible to squeeze the vassals dry for flying scrap metal that will never be used as intended.
And even assuming that the presidency of the US will be occupied by a person with psychiatric disorders like Clinton or Biden, and they decide to start a war with Russia – even in that case, they will not be very concerned for the Pollacks whom they forced to buy the F-35s.
The Pollacks would be thrown onto our air defenses like cannon fodder, hoping that our missilemen will run out of ammo by the time USAF forces arrive. All in all, it’s a lucrative business to sell the defective “on-the-knee”-made fifth-generation fighter jet, for the country where “everything is just pretend except for money.” The nuance is hidden in the fact that this business is finishing off the American military hegemony, obtained in 1991 after the breakup of the USSR. Good riddance…
The F-35 is the quintessential product of American Exceptionalism. Massively overpriced, profoundly a fraudulent weapon, nearly worthless for the tasks it was designed to do, and used as sucker bait with the allies.
In other words, perfect.
Probably all the perfect pilots meant to fly them are gone too, the ones left just get dizzy and then trying to land it become a handful.
Agreed. This was never meant to be a legitimate “weapons system” in the first place, just a truly next generation revenue extraction device. Well done Lockheed!
Larchmonter445
Yes, it is indeed a product of American “exceptionalism”. The philosophy behind the plane was that it would be stealth, and thus “invisible” to a potential enemy. There is no such thing as an “invisible” plane, as demonstrated by Serbs in 1999, when they shot down one F-117 and one B-2. The only thing stealth does is to make a plane slightly less visible on radar, but not invisible. Because the plane was meant to be “invisible”, it thus did not need to be too maneuverable, as it would use long range air to air missiles, as if other countries did not have them. The result was that the F-35 could not out fly the old F-16 it was replacing. On top of that you have a heap of technical deficiencies that have not been resolved. According to the latest data, the speed problem has arisen, as apparently the plane cannot maintain a high speed too long. Some years back the Pentagon wanted to terminate the project, as the plane had too many problems. The project was kept on. Had it been terminated, people would be asking the obvious question where all the money went in the development of the plane.
Yes, and modern radar-systems can detect stealth-planes and there are other means to detect planes like IR-detectors and so on. Stealth is a dead end and waste of taxpayers money! But the MIC love these costly planes for a reason…
Yes your right I remember reading when stealth first came hot on board, and a honest reporter (they don’t exist today) reported that at the showing of the new stealth plane that it appeared on radar just as any other plane does.But the bought military and congress couldn’t wait to get on board that stealth was the coming thing, along with all those board positon’s for the military brass and the payday for the congress critters, everyone made hay off from this one except the taxpayer as normal in a defunct system of greed and graft.!!!
There was, shortly after the B2 was first revealed to the world – decades ago IIRC – when BAe severely embarrassed the US in a demonstration (was it at a Fairford RIAT?) they gave that the Rapier AA system using IR could lock onto and be capable of bringing down a B2.
This Australian report was written in 2009. The conclusion is interesting. Also bear in mind that radar technologies including over the horizon radars have advanced considerably.
http://www.ausairpower.net/APA-2009-01.html#mozTocId142087
Top secret almost ready is satellite borne gravitational anomaly detector which can track any movement of any vehicle of any kind in the air, on the ground or under the sea. Mass cannot be disguised thus stealth is finished forever. Russia and China probably already have this technology using extremely sensitive instruments .
I was so astonished by this broadcast, that I could not believe it.
I researched the ‘net to see if it was true.
It is true.
There are articles about it everywhere, even in traditional American agitprop sites.
This is beyond astonishing. There are no words to describe it.
Mike from Jersey
Stealing from Uncle Sam is an American tradition. You had that case in the American Civil War when a private contractor sold boots to the US infantry. The boots started falling apart. When the US Army complained, the contractor stated that he was under the impression that the boots would be used by the cavalry, and not by the infantry.
The point is that the Russian Military Industrial Complex is in Government hands, while the US Military Industrial Complex is in private hands. This means the Russian military gets more for less money spent, while the US military gets less for more money spent. Take the “famous” Patriot Missile System. Some years back an Israeli general stated that it’s efficiency rate was a mere 2 %. Example: A couple of years ago a drone appeared in Israeli air space. The Israeli military fired three Patriots, and all three missed. Then you had that case last year of Yemeni troops firing drones and cruise missiles against Saudi oil installations, with the Patriot missile system failing to respond. Now compare that to the Russian Pantsir AA system, designed to shoot down cruise missiles, drones and low flying aircraft. The Russian Air Force base in Syria shot down every single drone that was used against it. Finally, the Patriot system has a nasty habit of making ‘U’ turns and attacking those who fired it. Some years back the Israeli military fired a Patriot missile. It made a ‘U’ turn and exploded in Tel Aviv, destroying and damaging quite a number of apartments.
B.F.,
You wrote:
I read Andrei Martyanov’s book “Losing Military Supremacy.” What you describe is exactly what he said. He had worked both in the USSR’s military establishment and in the West’s military establishment after the USSR fell. What you describe is precisely what he described as the reason why boondoggles like the F35 take place.
By the way, J.P. Morgan started his career of wealth acquisition in the Civil War. He bought out of date rifles from local armories and sold them back to the U.S. Army at a huge profit.
As an American, I am sick and tired of seeing this happen over and over again.
I had to add this. Martyanov additionally notes that in World War II, Russia had staggering losses, cities were destroyed, there were atrocities and more.
The losses to the United States were much less and there was no invasion of the country at all, after Pearl Harbor.
Martyanov notes that because of this different history, Russians view production of defense materials to be a noble endeavor. Anyone involved in it knows of ancestors who died or tortured and they consider it a matter of personal honor to produce the best products possible.
In the United States, this isn’t so. War is simply a profit center and nothing more.
Mike from Jersey
Yes, Russians cannot forget that they were invaded in two world wars and that they payed a huge price for these invasions. They view their military with passion. And yes, they want their military to have the best products.
You stated that the losses to the US in the Second World War were much less. That is true. We all know about the attack against Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. However, most Americans don’t know that there were two attacks against mainland USA. The first one was made by a Japanese jumbo submarine, which launched a hydroplane against the Californian coast. The plane dropped two bombs, causing forest fires. The second attack was made by balloons. The Japanese sent balloons against the Californian coast. They all had bombs, which caused some damage. The US military kept quiet, pretending it never happened. Because there was no publicity, the Japanese cancelled the entire project, thinking their balloons crashed in the Pacific.
B.F.,
I was aware of the balloon attacks but not of the submarine.
Here on the American east coast there were U-boats off the coast. And a commando squad landed on Long Island but were caught before they could do any damage.
Mike from Jersey
Yes, I know of that landing on Long island. It was pretty amateurish, as that landing should have been made in a sparsly populated region.The Germans have this narrow minded, “centralized” mentality.
There are many tales of U-boat personnel rafting into NYC at night & going to restaurants, play, movies, jazz joints, and houses of pleasure then slipping back out to the sub in the predawn hours.
The ballon attacks made in total 7 deaths. Some kids blew up when playing with the found item. Also the Manhattan project enrichmement site in Hanford,WA was almost hit by one of the balloon bombs. It came down only hundreds of meter from the site, completely randomly.
Some more interesting history: Fort Stevens on the north Oregon coast was bombarded by a Japanese submarine using its deck gun, I believe this happened in 1942!
Dont forget the Japanese invaded the Aleutian Island of Attu. The remains of the Japanese trenches and dispositions can still be seen today via Google Earth…just “hover” over the South East of the Island…fascinating…
Looking at the pic, it’s an even more magnificent achievement when you consider they got past design, testing & into the budget procurement line by giving it those 2 big front intake nacelles & making out selling it as if it was a twin-engine.
Yeah,like as if.
There have been for years already tv docu’s here with interviews from RCAF pilots & ex-, about the arm-twisting they got to get the gov to purchase this almost flying turkey remember it would be flown over vast arctic icecap expanses, several thousand mile round trips each, with hundreds of miles between even any tiny settlement.
Lose that engine, & they’d find out very fast it’s no Gimli Glider.
Hehe…
Cute, right?
17 trazillion dollars later…
…
Come on, that’s funny….
That jet is so round and bulbous! It defies grade school logic! Looking at Russian jets, they are thin, with huge engines, and 3D nozzles, able to turn around in mid-air, or even hover, and do incredible maneuvers. John Michael Greer was correct when he named this thing “lard bucket”. It’s not a flying machine, it’s a money maker. The only thing scary about it is the accompanying propaganda, for those stupid enough to believe anything a US American says.
It has to be that shape so that the “B” model has room for the vertical-lift fan.
So the F-35 basic design had to be compromised in order to accommodate a version of the plane that would account for only a miniscule percentage of the total production run.
Brilliant, isn’t it?
And voila in the news headlines recruitment for the new Space Force to the rescue? UFO’s? ALIENS? Yeah, I guess we are going to redefine God as an Alien and what go to war with Him? lol! !! It is written isn’t? lol? REV. 17: 14 & 19:17
They will wage war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will triumph over them because he is LORD of lords and King of kings-and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers.”
And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God, 18 so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and the mighty, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, great and small.”
Washington, DC what a cesspool of stupidity? you might like this lol https://youtu.be/zVRtFQVK9mI
But hey wasn’t it Catherine Austin Fitts who wrote extensively about the black budgets and the secret space program that the US is busily erecting?
Enjoyable video. Great line in it, “the stink of soiled trousers”. Also appreciated the description of the cowardly israeli attacks on Syria.
The ‘tweaking a television broadcast tower’ (transmitter/reciever relay network) thing slipped out in the press regarding the F-22 in the late ’90’s. Should be archived somewhere, if you are of a mind to ‘dig it up’. I cannot imagine that these idiots got much smarter since then. Just sayin’.
I recall that just after the Ain-Al Assad strike, the Russians let be known that all F-35 positions were detected, and being tracked, throughout the entire action (to include the number of airborne assets. I also recall that the high command was present, in theater, at the time (to include Commander in Chief, and Chief of Staff, and all hands on deck at the time).
So, I do really believe that the dumba$$ airplane is totally not invisible.
The only reason why the Russians didn’t shoot them all down was because if they had, then Lockheed Martin would have made more money building new ones.
And Russia didn’t want to add to Lockheed Martin’s profits.
Seriously though, I have a acquaintance who, fresh out of rocket science school (University degree), got a job with LM. He was told or figured out early on that the business model there is not National Defense, but Corporate Profit.
He left in disgust.
If I were Turkish high command (which, thankfully, I am not), I would be more than estatically happy to activate even just the radar network of the S-400 complex, any time of any day, week, month, or year, and drop the F-35 off at the nearest scrap yard for its weight in scrap metal.
Turkey being expelled from the F-35 programme was actually a blessing in disguise for them. Even the Australians admitted the F-16 outperforms the F-35 “Lard bucket,” which means the Su-35 or MiG-35 are much better than F-35, not to mention Su-57.
And the Israelians, while not “admitting” it, clearly show, by their actions, that the F16/F18 have higher chances of surviving than the F35; as they never use the F35 against an enemy able to launch anti-aerial missiles.
No worries.
The Americans can simply replace the F-35 with the Boeing 737 Max airliner.
The Boeing 737 Max is one the most fearsome airplanes of mass death ever invented and would be a wonderful addition to the American military arsenal.
That’s a good one.
Not for nothing is it called ‘the flying coffin’. Move over ‘widowmaker’.
Also, while we are on the subject,
Whatever effect that orbital satellite constellation deployment in the region was once able to provide (as regards EW countermeasures sufficient to render the F-35 undetectable) have, quite obviously been effectively neutralized.
I have never believed in stealth technology for a simple reason: time.
An aircraft is made to remain in service for several decades around 40-50 years.
Even if the F-35 is stealth today, in a few years it won t be stealth anymore because us main targets (russia and china) which are highly capable military powers will develop radars able to spot the F-35. Thinking that russia and china in a 40 years period of time won t be able to protect themselves from the F-35 is really a stupid idea. Moreover I never believed that the F-35 can really be a multirole jet. It s a single engine jet which means that it will never reach the speed required to be used as an interceptor like the F-22 or the MIG-31 (both have two engines).
Now with these new informations the F-35 has become some kind of subsonic ground attack fighter jet like a SU-25 or an A10 with one big limitation the F-35 can only carry weapons inside its bomb compartment because stealth requirements suppress external hard points. This means that the F-35 can only carry 6 air to ground missiles or bombs half the missiles and bombs that an A10 can carry.
The F-35 seems to be a limited overpriced subsonic ground attack fighter jet.
I wonder with what aircraft the us will replace its F-15s and F-16s. Both are more than 40 years old and the F-35 can not replace them.
“I wonder with what aircraft the us will replace its F-15s and F-16s. Both are more than 40 years old and the F-35 can not replace them.”
Given the time frame required to design and get modern fighting aircraft into service, it will probably be 15-20 years before any of these can be ready. The usa put essentially all its energy into the f-22 and f-35 programs. They really didn’t pursue any back-up designs that could be put into production any time soon. With the failure of the f-22 and the mounting failure of the f-35, they have been scrambling to update older designs, while putting new design development into overdrive.
Quite the exceptional track record that F-22 produced too, in record time vs any previous frontline fighter.
various names given: raptor cough, raptor black lung,…
https://www.quora.com/What-was-the-reason-for-the-black-cough-of-F-22-pilots?share=1
Here’s the list of planes I’ve found with pilots reporting respiratory issues: T-45, F-18(all variants, be they super or not), EA-18G, F-35 and F-22.
Many of these planes were in service for decades before the issue began. Decades without pilots coughing their asses off and 4 pilots (so far) dying due respiratory issues.
The symptoms reported by pilots precisely match the symptoms of extended low-moderate level boron inhalation.
Our lap dog Gov got suckered to the F-35 program to make it the largest air force acquisition project in Australia’s history. They’ve given the Criminals of USA over $17 billion to acquire at least 72 F35’s at $120 M a piece for a laughable 55 year life span of those pieces of junk.
It’s bad enough without exaggerating. It is the F-35C, the vertical takeoff version. And, the problem is with extended supersonic flight. That said, it is another embarrassment. Just be thankful it is not your tax dollars.
I have to disagree about one thing: (in the USA) “everything is just pretend except for money”. The money is also pretend (or fake).
@ 3:20
”This is an attempt to sell the stink of soiled pants as a tactical advantage that will help to scare off the opponent”
The Empire’s vassals wouldn’t object to any God-awful rubbish ”made in USA”; indeed that’s what their vassalage is all about — NATO members especially. But it’s interesting to look at it from the angle of Western supremacists. With Russia’s and China’s alleged lack of ingenuity — forever ’stealing’ from the great and glorious Pindos and Euro-trash — it gets a little hard to understand why Russia and China haven’t ended up with utterly unusable junk but with excellent military hardware. To most sane people, this is irrefutable proof of where the ingenuity is coming from (and from where it does not, LOL).
@4:53
”Nonetheless, using blackmail and threats, the USA forced their partners to buy the F35s. For example, several tens of jets were forced on Poland, who was not at all eager to buy them”
Nussiminen’s verdict: Just a silly marketing flaw. The Pindos should have added posters of JP II on the fuselage!
Yakovlev’s Revenge – it is after all based on the Yak-141 design
But why would they knowingly sell this junk to their Israeli overlords?!
Sayer,
That is a good point.
Also, why would the Israelis buy it?
They are not stupid. Why put money into buying a system like this?
To me, it does not make sense. I have read a lot on the F35 and almost all of it is negative. It is “maintenance heavy,” expensive to buy and maintain, it is difficult to keep operational, it has poor maneuverability, its operational availability / non-operational availability ratio is low, its ejection seat has serious functionality and safety problems and its major selling point – stealth – is questionable.
Why would the Israelis buy it?
There must be something available on the arms market which is far better and cheaper.
I don’t know enough about American / Israeli relations to figure this one out. Maybe it was, in essence, gifted to Israel.
Who knows?
Maybe someone with a better knowledge of American / Israeli relations can shed some light on this.
Who says Israel had to pay for them? The money seems to only go the other way.
You might very well be right. I don’t know enough about the transfer of weaponry to Israel to know if it is subsidized by the United States or not.
Maybe someone on this site knows the facts about this and can provide more detailed information.
While the f-35 has many flaws, it does have the latest american technology incorporated in it systems. That tech is top notch, even if the platform using it is not. That is one reason, the israelis get that tech.
Another has to do with costs. The israelis get free american money to spend on their military. I believe one of the stipulations of that gift is they must use that free money on american produced weapons. So “buying” f-35s becomes being gifted them.
A third reason is the israelis get a special model of the f-35 tailored to their wants, and will also modify the planes to better suit their needs (designer f-35s, if you will ;-D ).
Reason 4 is the limitations embodied in the f-35, such as low maneuverability and inability to sustain supersonic speed for long are not a liability in israeli practice. Neither is the small weapons payload. The slight reduction in radar signature (stealth) is a major factor. The israeli method of air warfare mostly consists of sneaking in close enough to launch missiles, then run away. Like how they have been air attacking Syria. The f-35 is quite adequate for that role, and better at it in most situations than their current aircraft are.
@vot tak,
Thanks for that info.
Not sure if Trump has changed the rules since, but I remember that when the second Obama administration upped military aid to the Izzies they made it conditional on the money being spent on US equipment. In other words a backdoor bailout for the F-35 program and other MIC boondoggles. And since, as Mr Ostashko observed, the IDF only uses F-35s at stand-off range (or for strafing civilians in Gaza etc.), it doesn’t mind so much that its free toys don’t work as advertised, so long as the missiles they fire do.
I do however recall an incident some while ago, where a Syrian air defence unit claimed to have downed one F-35 and damaged another, with one of their old Soviet-made systems (S-200 I think it was), when the pilots got cocky and came in too close. The Izzies denied it, said the planes had been damaged in a collision with a flock of birds, which seemed an implausible cover-story at the time. After watching this video I’m wondering if it wasn’t the birds after all.
US military aid has always been for US-made military equipment. Think of it as a Gift Voucher, redeemable at any good US Merchant of Death. But that gift voucher can’t be used anywhere else because Uncle Sam won’t honour that voucher if it is used anywhere outside the USA.
Again, it’s a Gift Voucher. You can’t expect to use a Gift Voucher in a rival’s shop. They won’t accept it because the issuer of that voucher won’t honour it and, frankly, why should they?
US military aid to Israel is unique in one aspect: alone amongst recipients Israel is allowed to skim off the top and use some of that aid money to install its own “upgrades” to that equipment. Which essentially means that Uncle Sam subsidises the domestic Israeli arms industry.
Think about that: Uncle Sam actually funds one (but only one) foreign *competitor* to the US arms industry.
Bizarre. utterly bizarre.
“There must be something available on the arms market which is far better and cheaper.”
Not from the Americans. And if they “buy” from the Americans then it’s free.
Remember, every F-35 the Israelis “purchase” is paid for out of US military aid to Israel i.e. the Israelis are “paying” for these jets using Free Gift Vouchers from Uncle Sam.
Sure, the Israelis could buy Russian-built Su-35 or EU-built Typhoons, but then the Israelis would have to spend their own money to purchase them: the Russians aren’t going to give its planes away for free, and those Free Gift Vouchers from Uncle Sam are “Only redeemable in the USA”.
So for the Israelis the choice is between:
a) The F-35 at no cost to them
b) Other fighter jets that they have to pay for out of their own funds.
Hardly a contest, is it?
ALSO NOTE: Only Uncle Sam is willing to let the Israelis rip out the factory-built electronics and replace them with Israeli-built avionics *and* Uncle Sam allows the Israelis to use US foreign military aid money to bankroll it.
It doesn’t even matter if those Israeli electronics are any better than the US equipment it replaces, what matters is that the US is willing to pick up the tab for that “upgrade” i.e. the USA is actually subsidizing the Israeli domestic arms industry in addition to giving the F-35 to the IAF at no cost to the Israelis.
Uncle Sam, the gift that keeps giving.
They get it for free.
The F35’s stealth is similar to my 3 Y.O. son’s concept of hiding his upper body behind the curtain while his family jewels are exposed beyond the curtain.
I am fond of the term “Flying Piano” in describing the F35. Visual aid: https://ibb.co/8xx0141
I remember this program started (JSF) when I was still in my diapers, and still going on since the 1990s. If this wasn’t a flying white elephant, I don’t know what is.
This was entertaining but not new. The serious shortcomings of this jet have been known for years already. In this we have a glaring example of just how nasty and fascistic the western capitalist system really is. The MIC doesn’t exist to protect the people. It exists to make money for the owners of the for-profit corporations or as Trump likes to refer to them, ‘our great companies’. Of course, this all requires constant threats to justify the expense of creating more weapons of death, even if some of it is junk. I guess to help defray the cost, the gangster empire forces their subjects to also buy this junk. I’m surprised any of them go along with this. They all must be tangled up in this criminal web deeply, or to use another Trump expression, ‘bigly’.
I recently read several WW2 histories, and the performance of the US Military (save for the Navy) was poor. In real wartime against peer opponents, incompetence, which proliferated during peacetime, was quickly weeded out. America has not faced a peer opponent since WW2. In today’s modern “battlespace” there will be no time to correct problems in personnel or materiel. What happens will happen very quickly.
The F35 was designed by Congress to have parts from all 50 states to guarantee passage. Thus every bell and whistle were added at the feed trough.
Based on the V-22 Osprey debacle, my guess is we will continue to throw money at it, many $10’s, even $100’s of billions, and eventually work out the main problems to get it right, over many years. The V-22 development cost was originally projected at $2.5 billion, per Wikipedia, and eventually reached $55 billion or thereabouts, some of which was inflation. Not all the problems were eliminated, but the main ones, at least enough to make it useable, over many years. The corresponding U.S. helicopter, nicknamed Super Stallion or something like that, is both cheaper, more capable, and more reliable, requiring muchness maintenance.
We will never admit a mistake for a huge program like that.
(PS: For what little it’s worth, I’m a Lockheed-Martin retiree, but from a different part of the corporation.)
Cultural change has damaged America’s ability to manufacture complex systems.
https://www.aljazeera.com/investigations/boeing787/2014/09/boeing-battle-between-quality-schedule-201491114110291678.html
The US keeps spewing out this nonsense that *this* failing or *that* limitation simply doesn’t matter because “the F-35 will be able to destroy the enemy before it can be detected”.
Hmmmmm.
That argument rather requires that while the F-35 is stealthy the enemy aircraft that it is up against isn’t. Which may be generally true now but definitely won’t remain true over the 20+ year service life of this aircraft.
Q: So what happens when both the F-35 and its opponent are stealthy?
A: Well, for one thing, the F-35 won’t be able to kill at a distance, precisely because it will be no more able to see the enemy than that opponent can see the F-35.
Q: Which means?
A: In an all-stealth airspace everyone will have to close the distance, at which point air warfare becomes a knife-fight rather than a sniper-duel.
Q: Meaning?
A: All the weaknesses of the F-35 (lack of speed, lack of acceleration, severely overweight) become fatal in a close-quarter knife-fight.
This is a lumbering walrus of an aircraft, and in a real war against a real peer-competitor it will be swept from the skies very quickly.
The F-35 was developed due to a misreading of historical processes. At the time, the exceptionalist USA thought history had ended, and no serious military or economic rivals would arise. In that environment the F-35 was designed for two purpose. The first is covered here in detail…a huge MIC cash cow that would be forced upon all the vassals.
The secondary purpose in the F-35 design was as a low-risk counter insurgency platform to be used against nations unable to defend themselves, similar to how Israel uses their version. It was built under the assumption the New World Order was already in place, and there would be no rivals powerful enough to oppose it….a bad miscalculation, one that gave Russia, China and even Iran the opening they needed.
Is there any evidence at all that the USA has spent time looking at alternatives to the F-35, even if just as a paper-exercise in risk management?
If not (and I see no evidence for it) then this amounts to a near-criminal negligence on the part of the USAF.
It is far from unknown for acquisition projects to fail, or to fall so short of expectations that they need to be relegated to the backwater theatres. Even a project as massive as the WW2 B-29 project had the B-32 Dominator stewing away on the slow-burner as a lower-risk backup.
But they F-35? Nothing, as far as I can see. It simply has to succeed otherwise the USA loses an entire generation of jet-fighter development.
Looks to me that the USA is going to lose an entire generation of jet-fighter development, since it has been suckered into a dead-end by Lockheed.
I don’t believe that USA builds crap things out of sheer desire for profit. To build something, even as simple as surgical mask, one needs to know how to make it, how to organize manufacturing, transportation and distribution to final users.
America, and EU states are not capable of such things. They have no people skilled and learned enough for such tasks. They destroyed education system, family values, all in last 50 years.
On this form I have read article about US building new tanks. It said “The first generation of tank designers is going to retire within a year”. That is my generation, post baby boom, hippies if you want. Vietnam war was “designed”, conducted and supported by one generation older, before baby boomers. That is why they at least lasted 15 years. Nowadays, the system simply does not produce people with enough knowledge and skills. For a very few that come out qualified enough – there is not work around, so they go for MBA to end up in finance.
Ignorance is such that it is almost impossible to see from inside.
It takes someone educated and with work experience in Eastern Europe, former USSR included big time to realize how bad engineering resources on American continent are, no disrespect, no offence to anybody. Sure, they can import people, as they do. But even that they got it wrong. All the work is done by Indians from India and Chinese, many of them second generation, i.e. schooled here. True, all Asian kids beat local white kids in high school, and at university, only because parents at home somehow made them study more and harder, with additional instructions. You can believe me, I have two boys just graduated engineering bachelor level, 4 years. One finished electrical engineering, U of Toronto. One of them is at Harvard, Massachusetts, master studies. I am proud of my boys, they are as good as any of their colleagues. Don’t ask me about overall knowledge and skills, just same sad state of affairs as their colleagues.
At the moment, the best engineers I have seen and met in USA/Canada are – Iranians, followed by some Russians which are few and far between (not Russian Jews, they are all in scum businesses, not in engineering). close, but distinctively behind are former Yugoslavians, mostly Serbians, on par with Romanians. They all came to USA/Canada between 1992-1998. With all due respect, Chinese are behind. Indians I can not include in this list, by no means. Maybe it was different in seventies and eighties (most of university professors are Indian or Chinese), when they come from China and India. All in all, it is immigrants, not recent ones, which are retiring en mass.
How can we talk about cutting edge technology when we cannot produce necessary human resources. If somehow USA/Canada were able to organize and manufacture enough medical masks, gloves and plastic gowns (garbage bag improvisations do not count), we can hope that maybe, just maybe there is hope in the future.
“On this form I have read article about US building new tanks.”
The USA isn’t building new tanks. They just keep upgrading the M1A1.
The problem is only for B and C versions, not the A.
What a brilliant commentary & eye-opener on the over rated US F35.
Tragically how do the EU vassals fall for the US deception time and again?
Many thanks, Saker.
If I was making this video, I’d have included a clip of Snoopy, with goggles and scarf, on top of his doghouse, and the Red Barron, both passing the slow, sub-sonic jet that can’t keep up with them.
I usually laugh at news articles on war aircraft that talk about its ‘dogfighting’ ability. (Thankfully, this piece doesn’t fall into the usual western modes).
The reason why is because ‘dogfighting’ has nothing to do with modern aerial combat. Modern planes fire their missiles at ranges up to 100 miles or so. During Vietnam, the US talked about removing the remaining gun from their planes as they were useless, but the Top Gun fighter jocks objected as it was a huge blow to their manhood.
So, if I was designing a new fighter jet, what I’d at least try as a prototype would be something that can carry more missiles, thus giving me more shots. The only maneuvering it needs is to do a 180 and get out of town when it missiles are gone. But speed is important. You don’t want to be caught from behind while heading for the base to reload. And if the mission is to penetrate enemy airspace, you don’t want to hang around longer than necessary.
Speed is definitely important. Stealth is important too, as it decreases the range at which the enemy can shoot at you, which lets you get closer and have better kill-chances before having to worrying about incoming missiles. But, speed is important.
And, there is a difference in military-speak between ‘tactical’ and ‘operational’. Slow can pretend to be better tactically, although if that was really true then everyone would still be flying biplanes. But, operationally, slow is a disaster. You see a blip on your radars. You want to intercept. How long will it take to get to a shooting position? Ooops, too slow. Boom. Speed is how big of a circle can you reach from your patrol station in a given amount of time. Slow means you watch the explosions from the incoming bombers on the horizon as you come putt, putt, putting up to the battle.
There was once an American general who explained his operational victories by saying something like … the battle goes to the side who gets there firstest with the mostest. The general known as Stonewall wasn’t a big fan of slow.
Now it has become more than apparent that even the ‘money’ has become pretend.
The late, great Richard Feynman commented, a propos of the loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger, that “It is not possible to produce a viable technology on the basis of public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled”. That was ~40 years ago, but the US continues to think otherwise.
The reason is the triumph of bullshit, aka postmodernism, in academia: any text can have any meaning an anointed “scholar” gives it. In US universities, the “liberal education” model makes a course in a “humanities” subject mandatory for graduation. It is easier and cheaper to teach bullshit than real subjects, and professors get rewarded even in their paychecks (via student assessments), if they give high grades for little work and conformity of opinion, Humanities majors, as we have seen in the last few weeks, are intellectual Skoptsy, having had all capacity for independent thought removed, and being left only with the scar tissue of rage, but even the STEMM majors produced think they can blag their way round the laws of Nature.
Hence the failure of the F-35 and the Boeing 737 Max. The story of the latter is jaw-dropping, with shim and other rubbish being left in the wing spaces, and Management thinking if they hung complex computation on the front end, they can compensate for fundamentally unsound aerodynamic design.
Even 10 years ago the consensus about the F35, in pubs frequented by British Aerospace people, was that “the bloody thing will probably never work”, but one way the US gets its allies to buy US military equipment is to give part of the development and manufacture to the allies’ own aerospace companies. So, F35 tail units continue to accumulate in a warehouse in Stevenage. Manufacture of the tail units seems to have been given the go-ahead before the problems in the front end had been solved. If version 1.3 of the tail assembly is being been married with version 3.5 of the front end, it could explain why the plane shakes itself to pieces when it goes supersonic.
I’m not an engineer but a biochemist, so all talk of Artificial Intelligence makes me suspicious, It will be remembered that the F35 originally had a system of displaying all data inside the pilot’s helmet, supposedly eliminating the necessity to look around (!). Anybody who uses the term “artificial intelligence”” should be made to write out 500 times “neurones are slow and are arranged in parallel, transistors are fast and usually arranged in series”
Fast forward to April 2022 and realize Israel has flown 1dozens if not hundreds of sorties into Syria, Lebanon, etc. No S-300 / S-400 has shot one down. Nuff said..