Pentagon questions tests the Marine Corps used to declare F-35 'ready'

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Trials aboard a Navy warship in May did not prove the F-35B is ready for combat, a Pentagon report says
The F-35B Lightning II is designed to replace existing Marine Corps aircraft
Marines say the May testing verified several F-35B capabilities
Footage shows F-35 stealth jet unleashing 181 rounds in matter of seconds
Highly-anticipated stealth jet has been plagued by production setbacks

Published: 23:59 EST, 15 September 2015 | Updated: 02:56 EST, 16 September 2015

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The tests used by the military on the latest breed of stealth jet, which was declared to be 'ready for combat' this spring, have been called into question by the Pentagon.

The F-35, which is one of the most highly anticipated advancements in military history has had more than its fair share of problems.

Now according to a report seen by the Washington Post, a top weapons tester at the Pentagon has declared the testing exercise to be 'so flawed that it 'was not an operational test … in either a formal or informal sense of the term.'

The report goes onto state the test 'did not — and could not — demonstrate' that the version of the F-35 that was evaluated 'is ready for real-world operational deployments, given the way the event was structured.'

Flawed? Concerns are being raised about the validity of the tests by the U.S. Marine Corps that led to the service declaring the F-35 ready for combat.

For the test, which happened in late May aboard the USS Wasp, to be “bona fide,” it would have had to be under “conditions that were much more representative of real-world operations than those that were used during this deployment,” J. Michael Gilmore, director of the Pentagon’s Operational Test and Evaluation Office, wrote in a memo.

Despite costing the US military more than $350 billion, the jet has so far failed to live up to expectations.

The cutting-edge F-35, which is meant to be the most sophisticated jet ever, was embarrassingly outperformed by a 40-year-old F-16 jet in a dogfight in July.

The test pilot condemned the jet's performance at the time, claiming it performed so appallingly that he deemed it completely inappropriate for fighting other aircraft within visual range.

'Flying computer': U.S. military leaders have extolled the virtues of the F-35 jets, but the Pentagon’s top weapons tester stated in a report in July that the exercise was so flawed that it “was not an operational test … in either a formal or informal sense of the term"

Previously, the Pentagon had leapt to the defense of its new toy, insisting that the aircraft used in the test was not equipped to the same standard of its front-line aircraft, and did not have its 'stealth coating'.

However, this new report in the testing, which was designed to see how the fighter would perform in operational conditions, will do little to restore confidence in the F-35.

The memo details how even the aircraft themselves had various maintenance issues.

“Aircraft reliability was poor enough that it was difficult for the Marines to keep more than two or three of the six embarked jets in a flyable status on any given day,” Gilmore wrote.

Another section of the report said that the “number of flight hours flown by each aircraft varied widely, with some aircraft in a down status for up to five days in a row, and other aircraft rarely requiring major maintenance.”

One test pilo even criticised the half-million-dollar custom-made helmet, supposedly designed to give the pilot a 360-degree view outside the plane, but which he claimed made it difficult to move his head inside the cramped cockpit.

Plagued by setbacks: The F-35 production has already cost the U.S. military $350billion and been delayed by more than eight years

Gilmore suggested that the Marines conduct another test with “a more aggressive set of demonstration objectives,' but even so once the tests were complete, they were declared to be a success - a sign that the $400 billion program had turned the corner after years of setbacks and billions of dollars of cost increases and delays.

A series of setbacks has delayed production by up to eight years and put it $263billion over budget, so far.

The spiralling costs are due to a number of factors, including engine problems that caused one jet to burst into flames during take-off last May.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, who is in charge of the F-35 programme, said the planes had been plagued by simple mistakes. These included everything from wingtip lights that did not meet Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) standards to tires that could not cope with the landings.

But military bosses have been quick to extol the virtues of the stealth multi-role fighter, which is predicted to be vastly superior to its fourth-generation predecessors.

BUT HOW DOES IT COMPARE WITH ITS 1970S PREDECESSOR, THE F-16 JET?

F-35

Role: Stealth multirole fighter

First flight: December 15, 2006

Unit cost (not including engine):

F-35A - $98million

F-35B - $104million

F-35C - $116million

Number built: 115 (as of November 2014)

Length: 15.67m

Wingspan: 10.7m

Height: 4.33m

Max speed (F-35A): 1,930kph

Armament:

One of the most highly-anticipated features of the F-35 armament is the Small Diameter Bomb II (SBD II).The bomb is able to guide towards its target using laser, imaging infrared or radar homing.

It can hit moving or stationary targets in any weather, or at night, with unprecedented reliability and accuracy.

The 'super weapon' is predicted to be the most versatile air-to-ground munition in the Pentagon's air combat inventory.

The cost per SDB II is said to be around $250,000 and the US military plans on buying as many as 17,000 of them.

F-16

Role: Multirole fighter

First flight: January 20, 1974

Unit cost:

F-16A/B - $14.6million

F-16C/D - $18.8million

Number built: 4,540+

Length: 15.06m

Wingspan: 9.96m

Height: 4.88m

Max speed (F-16C): 2,120kph

Combat history:

The F-16 has served in the Air Forces of 26 nations, including the U.S., Israel, Egypt, the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway.

During Operation Desert Storm, the 1991 assault on Iraq, F-16s flew over 13,000 operations, more than any other Coalition aircraft.

The U.S. has employed the F-16 in operations over the Balkans, Afghanistan and Libya.

At its production peak in 1987, the F-16 team in Fort Worth was also making history, by producing 30 F-16s in just 30 days.

Thanks to frequent upgrades improving and incorporating new technologies into the cockpit, avionics, sensors and weapons, the aircraft has become more reliable over its 40 years.