{"id":667353,"date":"2019-08-25T17:47:11","date_gmt":"2019-08-25T14:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/tr\/content\/?p=667353"},"modified":"2019-08-25T17:47:11","modified_gmt":"2019-08-25T14:47:11","slug":"the-f-35-inside-americas-dysfunctional-trillion-dollar-fighter-jet-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2019\/08\/25\/the-f-35-inside-americas-dysfunctional-trillion-dollar-fighter-jet-program\/","title":{"rendered":"The F-35 … Inside America\u2019s Dysfunctional Trillion-Dollar Fighter-Jet Program"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Airmen<\/div>
Airmen performing pre- and postflight inspections on the F-35A Lightning IIs at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho.<\/span>Credit<\/span>Credit<\/span>Anne Rearick for The New York Times<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Inside America\u2019s Dysfunctional Trillion-Dollar Fighter-Jet Program<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n

The F-35 was once the Pentagon\u2019s high-profile problem child. Has it finally moved past its reputation of being an overhyped and underperforming warplane?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n

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Airmen performing pre- and postflight inspections on the F-35A Lightning IIs at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho.<\/span>Credit<\/span>Credit<\/span>Anne Rearick for The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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By Valerie Insinna<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    On the morning of June 23, 2014, an F-35 burst into flames just moments before its pilot was set to take off on a routine training mission. He heard a loud bang and felt the engine slow as warning indicators began flashing \u201cfire\u201d and other alerts signaled that systems in the plane were shutting down. Witnesses at Eglin Air Force Base near Pensacola, Fla., reported seeing the pilot escape from the cockpit and run away from the fighter jet, which was engulfed in thick plumes of black smoke. It was the first major mishap involving a F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and it couldn\u2019t have happened at a worse time.<\/p>\n

    In less than a month, the F-35, America\u2019s high-profile next-generation fighter jet, was poised to make its international debut in Britain at Farnborough Airshow, the second-largest event of its kind in the world. Officials from the Pentagon and the aircraft\u2019s manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, had eagerly anticipated the opportunity to show off a working, flying F-35 after a decade of delays and spiraling cost overruns.<\/p>\n

    The F-35 initiative is the Defense Department\u2019s most expensive weapons program ever, expected to cost taxpayers more than $1 trillion over its 60-year lifespan. It\u2019s also the United States military\u2019s most ambitious international partnership, with eight other nations investing in the aircraft\u2019s development. Its advocates promised that the jet would be a game-changing force in the future of war \u2014 so much was riding on its success that a program cancellation was not an option. And yet for years it seemed as if the F-35 might never make it beyond its development phase.<\/p>\n

    Christopher Bogdan, the Air Force lieutenant general in charge of the program at the time of the fire, received a call about the incident within the hour. His first reaction was relief that it had been detected before takeoff, a stroke of good fortune that allowed the pilot to escape uninjured. \u201cIf that engine problem would have occurred 30 seconds, 60 seconds, two minutes later, that airplane would have been airborne,\u201d Bogdan said in a recent interview. \u201cHeaven knows what could have happened then.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n