Slashdot Mirror
F-35 Ejection Seat Fears Ground Lightweight Pilots
An anonymous reader writes: Writing for Defense News, Lara Seligman and Aaron Mehta report that "[c]oncerns about increased risk of injury to F-35 pilots during low-speed ejections have prompted the US military services to temporarily restrict pilots who weigh less than 136 pounds from flying the aircraft. During August tests of the ejection seat, built by Martin-Baker, testers discovered an increased risk of neck injury when a lightweight pilot is flying at slower speeds. Until the problem is fixed, the services decided to restrict pilots weighing under 136 pounds from operating the plane, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, F-35 integration office director, told Defense News in a Tuesday interview."
And because a technologically advanced industrial enemy would easily take down all those drones by simply jamming communications or, more radically, shooting down the communication satellites. Why, IRAN managed to hijack a US drone. Of course they're not camel humpers but they're not Russia, China or India. Why, using drones against Russia would mean eliciting an armed response against the US satellite fleet. And you can bet they're not restricting themselves, either. Fancy living without GPS?