New crisis in F-35s: US Congressmen Admonish!

F-35 Joint Program Office execs were reprimanded by U.S. congressmen for the poor performance of the F-35 stealth fighter jets during a meeting of the U.S. House Armed Services Subcommittee.

New crisis in F-35s: US Congressmen Admonish! John Garamendi, Chairman of the U.S. House Armed Services Subcommittee, and Representative Jackie Speier, another member of the subcommittee, spoke out at the Office of State Accountability (GAO) about the F-35’s low mission capability rate and chronic sustainment issues, Eurasian Times reported.

The F-35s failed to operate as expected, missed reliability targets, and doubled maintenance costs, according to the GAO assessment.

Tests used to measure ‘totally fit for duty’ in the US showed that the F-35s did not meet the performance target by nine percent.

Subcommittee Chairman Garamendi said, “I’ve been watching the F-35 for ten years and the problems are still unresolved. Our $1.7 trillion investment hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves. We’re going to go buy shiny new planes, and then we’re going to run into a problem.”

The GAO report states that since the beginning of 2020, an increasing number of F-35 aircraft have been unable to fly due to the lack of a working engine.