Planned American jet fighter 'security threat' to U.S, allies
Serious issues plague F-35 achieving operational status
Published: 8 hours ago
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Air Force’s stealth F-35 Lightning Joint Strike Fighter – slated to replace a wide range of existing fighter, strike and ground attack aircraft – has turned into a “security threat to the United States and its allies,” a former high-level Defense Department official says in a new report in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
Stephen D. Bryen, who served as deputy undersecretary of defense for trade security policy, told G2 Bulletin that the F-35 is such a security threat that smaller allied countries that rely on it may have to resort to “weapons of mass destruction as alternatives to credible air power” in the future.
In addition, he said, the delays in making the F-35 operational may jeopardize U.S. national security in the wake of the development of technically advanced stealth fighter jets by Russia and China.
A number of allied and friendly countries already have placed orders for the highly expensive F-35. They include Britain, Turkey, Canada, Australia, Israel and the Netherlands.
The F-35, produced by Lockheed Martin, was meant to replace various tactical aircraft, including the U.S. F-16, F/A-18, the A-10 and the British Harrier GR7 and GR9.
“The immediate issue is whether the U.S. can overcome the heavy risk it has created under the banner of the F-35 and do something more with the equipment it now has to try and stay in the game,” Bryen said. “Otherwise, the F-35 is a security threat for the U.S and its allies – just the opposite of what was intended.”
Russian jet ‘every bit as good’
Bryen said that the Russian Sukhoi, or Su-35, which recently was deployed to Syria to provide air support to defend the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is “every bit as good as anything the U.S. or the Turks can put in the air.”
Get the rest of this report, and others, at Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
As of now, the projected average annual cost of the F-35 program is some $12.5 billion, with an estimated program life-cycle cost of $1.1 trillion.
The Air Force intention of producing both the F-22, of which the U.S. has a limited number and is phasing out, and the F-35, are to provide cover for conventional F-15s and F-16s until they are phased out. It was anticipated that they would provide air superiority for the U.S. and the allies.
“There are many top-notch aviation experts who think the U.S. planners have lost track of the strategic objectives in the F-35 program, leading to a dangerous situation that will emerge in the next five years and probably persist for the next 20 years,” Bryen said.
Bryen’s concerns echo a recent Pentagon report by weapons testers that the F-35 program has an “unrealistic test schedule.”
The report, in turn, reflects on a memo leaked in December 2015 that revealed issues over the jet’s software development.
The testing issues are further delaying by a year the operational evaluation of the F-35. Flight testing isn’t likely to be completed until “at least” January 2018.
Read more at
http://www.wnd.com/2016/02/planned-american-jet-fighter-security-threat-to-u-s-allies/#qbXDStk0VOgG2zmt.99
