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Air Force Grounds $400 Billion F-35s Because of 'Peeling and Crumbling' Insulation (washingtonpost.com)
An anonymous Slashdot reader quotes the Washington Post:
Less than two months after declaring the controversial F-35 Joint Strike Fighter ready for combat, the Air Force on Friday announced that it was temporarily grounding 15 of the jets after it discovered that insulation was "peeling and crumbling" inside the fuel tanks. The setback is the latest for the $400 billion system, the most expensive in the history of the Pentagon. The problem comes as the program, which for years faced billions of dollars in cost overruns and significant schedule delays, had begun to make strides.
The insulation problem affects a total of 57 aircraft, the Air Force said, 42 of which are still in production... In a statement, Lockheed Martin said that "the issue is confined to one supplier source and one batch of parts." It emphasized that "this is not a technical or design issue; it is a supply chain manufacturing quality issue..." It is unclear how long the aircraft would be grounded, how long the problem would take to fix or what the larger affect on the program would be.
âoeWhile nearing completion, the F-35 is still in development, and challenges are to be expected," said an Air Force spokeswoman, adding "The F-35 program has a proven track record of solving issues as they arise, and we're confident we'll continue to do so."
The insulation problem affects a total of 57 aircraft, the Air Force said, 42 of which are still in production... In a statement, Lockheed Martin said that "the issue is confined to one supplier source and one batch of parts." It emphasized that "this is not a technical or design issue; it is a supply chain manufacturing quality issue..." It is unclear how long the aircraft would be grounded, how long the problem would take to fix or what the larger affect on the program would be.
âoeWhile nearing completion, the F-35 is still in development, and challenges are to be expected," said an Air Force spokeswoman, adding "The F-35 program has a proven track record of solving issues as they arise, and we're confident we'll continue to do so."
Future wars will be fought with pilotless (and maybe even autonomous) vehicles.
Some will, some won't. You won't see large scale remote operated vehicles between major powers because they have one huge weakness - namely they can be jammed. They're useful against third world countries with limited military resources. I wouldn't have nearly so much faith in them against a major power like Russia or China. Autonomous fighting vehicles are not only not ready for combat yet, it's not clear that they are a good idea at all for a host of both practical and ethical reasons. Even if they manage to deal with those concerns adequately (and I doubt they will) we're still quite a long ways from having practical autonomous weapons platforms. (If the phrase "autonomous weapons platform" doesn't scare you there is something wrong with you)
Cyber warfare will also be much more devastating than whatever damage this overpriced toy can produce.
Not any time soon. Maybe someday but that day is a ways off. Right now bombs and missiles have a lot more power to shut down the infrastucture of a country than any hacker. Go to Syria and tell me how much damage has been done there with just conventional weapons versus hacking. The difference isn't even close and it's likely to remain that way for quite some time to come. Cyber warfare can cause some serious problems but it's a rather awkward way to kill them in any meaningful numbers.
We should dock the pay of every congress critter who voted for it until it's paid back in full.
Good luck with that.