Airframe trouble for the F-35; slow production, says U.S. official
The Joint Strike Fighter faces new problems, according to a high-ranking U.S. military official.
According to reports out of the U.S. Friday, Vice Adm. David Venlet, who runs the JSF program, has expressed worry at the speed of production of the F-35 fighter jets. There are now problems with the airframe.
Venlet told AOL Defense there are “hot spots” – potential cracks – that are small, but “when you bundle them all up and package them and look at where they are in the airplane and how hard they are to get at after you buy the jet, the cost burden of that is what sucks the wind out of your lungs.”
He recommended that production of the planes be scaled back until the problems can be managed correctly, and then ramped up again in the future when there is a solution.
“This is the fighter plane for the future and in some ways we really have no alternative.”
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