Why the F-35 needs an engine upgrade
BY Herschel Smith
2 weeks, 1 day ago
We’ve covered this before.
I don’t think it needs an upgrade. I think it needs program cancellation. Can you imagine a branch spending more on toys than the Air Force?
The total cost for all of this is $2 trillion. Trillion, with a ‘t’.
On May 5, 2025 at 8:23 pm, Dan said:
Like it or not the F 35 is our go to a for war against a peer adversary for the for see future. As such it needs to be as effect as possible. If DOGE saves us all the money that is allegedly being wasted then we CAN afford to keep military hardware updated. And the odds of a war against China/Russia are very real at the moment.
On May 5, 2025 at 10:47 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
I am not in the loop on aviation affairs the way I once was, so forgive this question if it seems odd:
Why not re-start production of the F-22 Raptor? From what I hear/read, it is everything that the F-35 is not.
On May 5, 2025 at 11:06 pm, Michael Gilson said:
The F35 was originally supposed to be the ‘low’ in a ‘High / low’ mix with the F22. Then the Obama administration decided we didn’t need a ‘high’ and ended procurement of the F22. But there were things that NEEDED to be done that the F35 couldn’t do, so they started changing it. Now the cheap plane is more expensive than the expensive plane was, plus there are a lot of doubts if it is even up to the job.
On May 6, 2025 at 1:56 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
I recall seeing someplace that the “stealthy” features of the F-35 – such as internal weapons storage – no longer render it invisible or nearly so to the radar arrays of potential adversaries. The Chinese, Iranians, et al. have refined their air defense systems and radar to the extent that what was once stealthy is not any longer.