F-35 Deal Targets Lower Price, More Shared Risk (Aviation Week)

USAF Finally Begins F-35 Pilot Training (Aviation Week)

Latest F-35 Unit Costs Now Exceed $223 million (Defense Aerospace)

I think I must have missed this report back in June.

 

F-35 scrap rate at 16 percent - Pentagon (Reuters)

Another rather unpleasant development in the F-35A option for Canada.

We're not getting the IFR probe and therefore our F-35A would be incompatible with our CC-150T Polaris tankers.

Military will contract out air-to-air refuelling if Canada goes with F-35 (Ottawa Citizen)

How Good Is The World's Most Expensive Fighter Jet?

 

At $130 Million A Plane, Critics Question The Cost Of The F-35

 

(National Public Radio, 2 January 2013)

Cost issue overshadows F-35’s unsuitability (Ottawa Citizen)

Canadian Military Would Need To Outsource F-35 Refueling (DefenseNews)

Pentagon Report Cites 'Lack Of Maturity' Of Lockheed F-35 (Aviation Week/Reuters)

 

DOT&E FY 12 annual report (pdf)

Lockheed’s F-35 Falls Short of Testing Goals in 2012 (Bloomberg)

Report: Lightning a Threat to JSF; Cutting Weight Erodes Safety (DefenseNews)

Pentagon lowers F-35 performance bar (Flight Global)

It's not unexpected, but it sembles a very devastating report.

It's not unexpected, but it sembles a very devastating report.

 

Favourable reports that aren't LockMart brochures,or come from its own paid consultants, are pretty hard to come by.

 

The pro F-35 lobby will no doubt claim that despite all its shortcomings, the F-35 is still better than any alternative choice, performance wise, but then we must consider cost (both acquisition, maintenance costs, and cost to fly) and the fact that most alternatives are available now, rather than 2019 or later.

Two F-35B testing again in the USS Wasp (with some video), from Mer et Marine:

http://www.meretmarine.com/fr/content/f-35b-nouvelle-campagne-la-mer-reussie-bord-de-luss-wasp

Lockheed addresses Pentagon F-35 DOT&E report (Flight Global)