US grounds F-35 fighter jets over cracked engine blade [The Guardian]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/23/us-f35-grounded-cracked-engine-blade
The story as reported by the BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21554331
It was reported Feb. 23 that the entire F-35 fleet had been grounded. This is the second time in two months that the F-35 has been grounded.
The ongoing troubles with the Lockheed F-35 (now better known as "The Troubled F-35" - never a good sign) are beginning to jeopardize orders to foreign military customers. Loss of these orders will further increase the cost of the planes to the American Taxpayer.
Grounding, budget woes cloud F-35 warplane sales push in Australia
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/25/us-lockheed-fighter-australia-idUSBRE9...
"That means Canberra could buy far fewer F-35s than initially planned, at a time when Canada is also rethinking its plans to make the F-35 - also known as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) - its future front line warplane."
"Australia and other countries are watching orders and problems with the jet with concern, since every reduction drives up the price of the remaining fighters to be built."
Today, Feb. 25th, more problems with the F-35 Lightning came to light.
Honeywell to test some F-35 parts after smoke incident -
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/25/us-lockheed-fighter-honeywell-idUSBRE9...
Yes, when they add "troubled" as the "de rigueur" modifier to the name of the most expensive weapons program in the history of the world, it is indeed NOT a good thing. It's a familiar pattern. Lockheed's last great fighter jet, the F-22 Raptor, entered service in December 2005. The Raptor has never been used in combat, largely because of performance and safety problems, particularly with its oxygen system. It's only "kills" to date are of its own pilots.
This is what you get with an obscenely over-resourced military. It does not make us stronger. It does not make us safer. It becomes a leech on the taxpayer and the economy.
Want to keep up with America's latest wonder weapon? (As in, you've gotta wonder how we're ever gonna pay for this fiasco.)
It's got its own website:
https://f35.com/
You can like it on Facebook (What are you waiting for? Almost 8,200 people already have!):
https://www.facebook.com/thef35
You can follow it on Twitter (Do you think it sends out its own tweets?):
https://twitter.com/thef35
Naturally, it's on YouTube (Fighter jet videos are cool - like top Gun!):
https://twitter.com/thef35
And there are some awesome stills on its Flikr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lockheedmartin/6681250823/in/set-72157601438420763
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Gordon_Shumway
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