Hot Stuff: The F-35 Just Became 25% More Vulnerable

[unhappycamper]

http://nation.time.com/2013/01/11/hot-stuff-the-f-35-just-became-25-more-vulnerable/



Hot Stuff: The F-35 Just Became 25% More Vulnerable
By Mark Thompson
Jan. 11, 2013

~snip~

The three versions of the plane – the F-35A for the Air Force, the F-36B for the Marines, and the F-35C for the Navy – have reached their maximum weights, about 30,000 pounds each.

But F-35 engineers know that required tweaks down the runway will force them to add weight to the plane — to strengthen parts that need to be stronger, add protection of one kind or another, or if components end up weighing more than predicted. So they’ve been whittling away at the plane’s evolving design to make it as light as possible.

That can be a problem, as the Pentagon’s Operational Test and Evaluation shop has just revealed in its 2012 report on the F-35.

Two changes designed to cut the plane’s weight by 11 pounds have made it 25% more vulnerable to exploding in mid-air, and other unfavorable outcomes.

[formercia]

1. Besides, potential enemies have been working on countermeasures for the F-35 for years.

Countermeasures are a lot cheaper to implement as well.

[orpupilofnature57]

2. It seems the common enemy is simply $$$$$

[2on2u]

3. One solution would be to produce less enemies. n/t

[orpupilofnature57]

4. +1000 !!!!

[formercia]

5. That would work.