F-35 problems continue

The most expensive weapons program in the Department of Defense, the F-35 Lightening took another hit yesterday, this time from Federal auditors who have determined that the engine is unreliable – but what aircraft really needs a reliable engine, right? From Fiscal Times;

The GAO’s findings come just as lawmakers are considering whether to grant the DoD an additional $1.2 billion for the jet engines next year. They’ve already approved roughly $17 billion of the total $67 billion for the F-35’s engines alone. The entire program’s price tag is about $391 billion and counting.

“This means that the engine is failing at a much greater rate and requiring more maintenance than expected,” auditors said in the report. “While overall reliability has increased, engine reliability over the last year has remained well below expected levels. Improving the F-35 engine reliability to achieve established goals will likely require more time and resources than originally planned.”

You might remember that the service chiefs are using the capabilties of the F-35 as a close air support aircraft as an excuse to dump the A-10 Thunderbolt. But you know, since the F-35 is proving to be a money pit and probably won’t be ready for combat this decade, Congress has extended the A-10’s life. From Tucson News Now;

The House Armed Services Committee restored $682 million in funding for the A-10, funding which was in doubt.

“So today is a really big victory,” says District 2 Republican Martha McSally. “I don’t have to offer an amendment or run around getting offsets to funding.”

The money is not guaranteed beyond 2016 because the Department of Defense does its budget annually.

The Air Force or Defense Department could dump it anyway.

But for the first time in a while, the A-10 has some new support.Texas Republican Mac Thornberry, the new chair of the committee, has given a thumbs up in his support of the mission saying “the budget driven decision to retire the A-10 is misguided.”

The Defense Department and the White House have been cramming both of these programs down the taxpayers’ throats for years. Obviously, neither is all that interested in national defense and they’re making decision based on political expediency instead of the lives of the troops and pilots.

In other Warthog News, Pinto Nag sends us a link to the news that an A-10 that had suffered “catastrophic failure” over the war against ISIS was forced to land at an Iraqi airbase deep behind the battle lines.

The “catastrophic damage” might suggest the engine was hit by surface-to-air missiles or another kind of anti-aircraft weaponry (especially because the A-10s operate at low altitude and have already been targeted by MANPADS in Iraq); however, according to Stars and Stripes, Col. Patrick Ryder, a CENTCOM spokesman, told reporters that the plane was not hit by enemy fire, and he downplayed the incident.

Ayn al-Asad Airbase, in the Sunni western province of Al Anbar, was one of the largest Iraqi airbases, and the second-largest US military airbase in Iraq until the last Marines withdrew from the country and the installation was closed on December 31, 2011. Since late October 2014, the airbase, which hosts several US Marines and advisors for the local security forces, has frequently been under attack by Islamic State militants.

The “Cross of Death” was repaired and flown to safer surroundings.

Category: Military issues