Gajillion-Dollar Stealth Fighter, Now Easier to Shoot Down

The jet that’s supposed to make up more than 90 percent of America’s combat aviation fleet may have become a lot easier to shoot down.


Gajillion-Dollar Stealth Fighter, Now Easier to Shoot Down
By Noah Shachtman
June 11, 2010 | 12:26 pm

Lockheed Martin, makers of the Joint Strike Fighter, has been under huge pressure to stabilize the jet’s skyrocketing costs. Production prices have nearly doubled on what was supposed to be an “affordable” fighter. R&D money is up another 40 percent. Some analysts predict the program could run as much as $388 billion for 2,400 jets.

So Lockheed decided “to trim 11 pounds and $1.4 million from each aircraft by removing shutoff valves for engine coolant and hydraulic lines and five of six dry bay fire-suppression systems,” according to InsideDefense.com.

But those cuts made it much harder for the Joint Strike Fighter to withstand a hit from an anti-aircraft weapon. “When you have something full of fuel under high pressure, some of it very hot, flowing close to hot metal parts and 270 VDC electrical components, your shutoff and check valves and fire suppression in the dry bays (places fuel will spray into) are your only defense,” a knowledgeable observer notes.

Michael Gilmore, the Defense Department’s chief weapons tester, recommended in a letter to Congress last month “that these features be reinstated.” The amount saved by trimming these components, he noted, would be more than made up, if just two aircraft were lost.

“Live-fire ballistic testing has demonstrated that the JSF is vulnerable,” added Lt. Gen. George Trautman, the Marines’ deputy commandant for aviation.

I saw an ad recently from Lowes on an "affordable" washer/drier combo-only $1849 ea.

and they're admitting that a "stealth" plane is vulnerable-i.e. it's not really all that stealthy then.

Lead is cheap and the fighter isn't invisible.

and pretty soon we're talking real money.

Kill the program. It can be a ghost airplane. Nobody can shoot down something that doesn't exist.

It's as if the AF has this notion that creating joy riders for stick jockey's is somehow a "necessity". Everything in the arsenal now can handle any perceived terrestrial threat. As of today, there is no known extra-terrestrial threat.

Just a passing thought here, but $388,000,000,000 for a fighter that is not necessary at his time, or in the foreseeable future is absurd; especially when one considers that we cannot even "control" things on the ground w/some highly motivated individuals that have "base-line" arms in countries that barely have a budget to live on.

Just what nation is in any way a threat where such as a technological marvel is warranted? Those that talk about "government waste" need to take a look at this boondoggle.

I'm all for national security, but said security should be in line w/the threats that are realistic.

We have the margest and most powerful Air Force in the world; we also have the 2nd largest and 2nd most powerful air arm in the US Navy, all of the other air arms combined in the world don't even come close...why is this a "necessity"?


ETA: Trim 11#'s...get a thinner pilot.