F-35C Lightning II carrier variant joint strike fighter. Source: U.S. Navy
The Pentagon halted shipments of Lockheed Martin Corp’s F-35 fighter jets for 30 days this fall after it discovered corrosion around fasteners and a fix was devised, the Pentagon and Lockheed said on November 1, according to Reuters.
The Air Force detected “corrosion exceeding technical limits” where the carbon fiber exterior panel is fastened to the aluminum airframe during routine maintenance at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.
The Pentagon said in a statement that although the the fastener issue on the current F-35 fleet is not affecting flights, nor is it a safety concern, this issue “needs be corrected to prevent potential future corrosion, it does not pose a safety of flight risk to the F-35 fleet or affect current operations.” According to the Pentagon, a lack of protective coating at the fastening point that would have prevented corrosion was identified as the primary problem.
Lockheed is investigating the extent of the corrosion issue across the fleet of more than 250 jets deployed to the US military and its allies.
This is the latest of several production issues that have arisen in the 17-year history of the Pentagon’s expensive weapons program. In 2016, a fix for insulation problems in the fuel tanks and lines of the jets caused a slowdown in deliveries.
It seems that americans developed a technology able to corrode carbon fiber and aluminium… And from time to time, it flies too. Except when encounters a sparrow.
Galvanic corrosion is a must-must and a fundamental in any civil or military engineering boiling project.
“The Air Force detected “corrosion exceeding technical limits” where the carbon fibre exterior panel is fastened to the aluminium airframe” – ask any engineer that builds things, for this to happen on the F-35 is laughable (in a hysterical way).
It can still take down crappy Russian fighters well before they even realized they been detected lol!
That remains to be seen.
I think not . The Stork Squadrons will defeat them all :)
Based on what? It’s remarkable performance in Lockheed ads?
Similar to the way the Donald Cook sailed into Crimea during the Ukrainian coup? Oh wait a minute, didn’t the Donald Cook carrier do a figure 8 as it hastened it’s departure after learning about Russian jets by merely sailors looking up into the sky over the ship? It appears that the military could have saved some tax payer money instead of purchasing all of that expensive fancy electronic gear; after all, it was the eyes of Navy sailors looking up into the sky that detected those low flying Russian jets. I guess that’s the kind of detection you had in mind.
Dream on miss misinformed
lol, vulnerable to S-200’s hahahaha!
Come on dude! “Bird strikes”? Really? But the F-35 passed birdstrike tests with an A+!
Dude, its a dudd! An expensive gamble on tech that failed in the 1990’s in Serbia!
1.5 trillion spent on creating a tech that can be countered by tech that probably cost a few billion!
YOU FUCKIN IDIOTS HAHAHAHAHAHA! ok here we go…… IF and I do say “if” the F-35 and the F-22 end up being detectable at greater distances than they were designed to be, then the USA is officially inferior to Russian Aircraft! Because the F-16 is the BEST American aerial combat aircraft the US has! (certainly not the super hornet). Russia can already beat this aircraft in air battles (dog fights) and Russian Jammers and missiles shoot further!
USA just lost the air battle!
Game over! Time to make deals with the Russians! Put ur lipstick on sweety, its time to suck some Russian dick!
Caused by storch urine ..
Mike Pence has problems with english language:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/08/mike-pence-touches-nasa-equipment-right-next-to-do-not-touch-sign
Lastly he went to visit USAF airbase, and asked the pilots: -What happens, if F-35 stays long in rain? (after 1 seconds whispering answer) – Rusts. – Rusts….. – repeated disconcertedly Pence,- and what else?! …… …… Still corrodes, you assholes!
The same Pence who touched the NASA thingy with a huge “DON’T TOUCH” sign? :)
The mere fact that many of these flying scrapheaps will be operating in a salt laden maritime environment is even more reason to laugh a lot :)
When my government announced they would be spending my tax dollars to subsidise development of a new Yankee plane my first response was, this is going to be an expensive embarrassment, I hate being right so often. We should have got the Chinese to build them, they’d still be pieces of shit but we would have saved billions.
Okay… So what’s this things really good at ?
Annoying Storks on their way to deliver babies?
Making lockheed money I guess
S-200 delay!