Plagued by problems, F-35 nowhere near ready to fly

[unhappycamper]

https://www.rt.com/usa/337121-f35-problems-pentagon-hearing/



Plagued by problems, F-35 nowhere near ready to fly
Published time: 25 Mar, 2016 00:47

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is the Pentagon’s great stealth hope for the future of air combat. With the most recent software failures, however, US officials are voicing concerns about the program, which is estimated to cost $1 trillion over its lifetime.

The fighter jet “remains immature and provides limited combat capability,” Michael Gilmore, the Pentagon’s director of operational test and evaluation, told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, adding that the F-35 has “many unresolved significant deficiencies.”

Gilmore reported that the F-35’s latest operating system has 931 open documented deficiencies, 158 of which are Category 1 – classified as those that could cause death, severe injury, or severe illness. He called the current testing and deployment schedule “unrealistic” and estimated that the software won’t be ready before late 2018.

Of particular concern is the fighter’s onboard computer, known as the Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS). When the latest version of the software was delivered for testing last month, “it was so unstable that productive flight testing could not be accomplished,” Gilmore testified. A scheduled electronic warfare mission that was to involve four F-35s with Block 3F software was cancelled when only two managed to make it to the range. The other two planes never took off, “due to avionics stability problems during startup.”

[flamin lib]

1. The F 35 did a combat trial against an F 16, an airplane that has been in service cor 50 years,

and even though the F 16 was fully loaded with external fuel tanks and missiles against a stripped down F 35 the F 16 out flew and 'defeated' the new wonder plane.