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The F-35C has been deployed on Carl Vinson for about four months now.
A sure sign that everything is going swimmingly is a complete lack of media talking about how fucked a controversial program is.
Come to think on it... There hasn't been a whiff of Pierre Speyesque dislike of the entire program for quite a while.
Sounds like the media got the "Cool it!" message.
ReplyDeleteYes, the program is expensive, especially due to the quantity cuts incurred thanks to Congress changing its mind every week or so. Yes, it's complex, and too way too long to get right (but so did the F-22.) Yes, it's this and that and the other thing. Teething pains.
ReplyDeleteBut the Israelis love theirs. Finland is buying into the program. And there are lots of foreign buyers (but not Canada, because Trudeau's government is very anti-American.)
Reports from actual use by the US say the plane actually works, and works well. Hope so.
The primary reason that Congress kept changing their mind on the number of planes to be produced is that the military types kept adding features to the plane that raised the price. LM was surprised that Congress turned down the money spigot instead of just going along with the funding.
DeleteAs to performance, I've heard differently, but I don't have the time to look up open source material. I will say that I have no doubt that these planes will perform about as well as the feminized USMC if we get into a shooting war with a peer or near peer. In other words, time to learn Russian or Mandarin.
If you're not going to bother backing up your argument, you haven't made it.
DeleteThe F-35 may be a wonderful airplane, but the British navy reports that they can't swim & don't float.
ReplyDeleteFigures, the one feature that LM didn't add on, seaplane, turned out to be needed.
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