F-35B adds to its list of failure

The F-35B is unlikely to do STOVL ops sufficiently in hot/high conditions according to the U.K.

Hardly any news for those of us who have followed the program for years.

Paper-thin weight margins (DOTE and APA) are not performance value-added in hot/high ops. The F-35B has also been "leaking" total on-board fuel for some years due to these performance problems. Or is it the lousy fuel-inerting capacity? Or both?

This is just one more thing that declares loudly that the F-35 is a failed program. It is not affordable. It is not a "model acquisition program". These were two of many statements used to sell Congress on the Joint Strike Fighter program in the 1990s.

Under-performing and being a pinata for modern air threats adds to that failure.



As for the dilettante Defence Minister Johnston suggesting F-35Bs for Australia for ship ops:

What.

A.

Joke.

Fortunately no one ever fights wars where it is hot.

Most of the root cause for these issues can be found here.

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-Time's Battleland - 5 Part series on F-35 procurement - 2013 
-Summary of Air Power Australia F-35 points
-Aviation Week (ARES blog) F-35 posts (2007 to present)
-U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO) F-35 reports
-F-35 JSF: Cold War Anachronism Without a Mission
-History of F-35 Production Cuts
-Looking at the three Japan contenders (maneuverability)
-How the Canadian DND misleads the public about the F-35
-Value of STOVL F-35B over-hyped
-Cuckoo in the nest--U.S. DOD DOT&E F-35 report is out
-6 Feb 2012 Letter from SASC to DOD boss Panetta questioning the decision to lift probation on the F-35B STOVL.
-USAFs F-35 procurement plan is not believable
-December 2011 Australia/Canada Brief
-F-35 Key Performance Perimeters (KPP) and Feb 2012 CRS report
-F-35 DOD Select Acquisition Report (SAR) FY2012
-Release of F-35 2012 test report card shows continued waste on a dud program
-Australian Defence answers serious F-35 project concerns with "so what?"
-Land of the Lost (production cut history update March 2013)
-Outgoing LM F-35 program boss admits to flawed weight assumptions (March 2013)
-A look at the F-35 program's astro-turfing
-F-35 and F-16 cost per flying hour
-Is this aircraft worth over $51B of USMC tac-air funding?
-Combat radius and altitude, A model
-F-35A, noise abatement and airfields and the USAF
-Deceptive marketing practice: F-35 blocks
-The concurrency fraud
-The dung beetle's "it's known" lie
-F-35's air-to-air ability limited
-F-35 Blocks--2006 and today
-The F-35B design is leaking fuel



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