Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The U.S. Air Force just admitted the F-35 stealth fighter has failed

forbes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 1001 posts

Re: The U.S. Air Force just admitted the F-35 stealth fighter has failed

#161

Post by silexia »

heymijo wrote: post #140
misiti3780 wrote: post #86

The saddest thing about all of this IMO is they have been working on this for 14 years, and how much money was spent/wasted? Now, read about Skunkworks - they were able to build the SR71 (without supercomputers) in less than half that time and for a fraction of the cost. This isn't just planes, this seems to be everything nowadays. Fission was discovered in 1938/1939 and we dropped two bombs on Japan in 1945. No chan…

Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) [0]. You might have missed this news. It’s a modern remix to the Kelly Johnson and Ben Rich days of developing legendary aircraft at Lockheed’s Skunkworks that you lamented the loss of. People in the know confirm it’s legit and shocking, in a good way. Especially compared to the failures of the F-35 and even the F-22’s development. [0] https://www.airforcemag.com/article/ropers-ng…

Until we break new military developments away from the political process of congress people funneling projects to big companies in their districts regardless of competence we will continue to see failure after failure in every area.

We saw many advances during world War I and world War II because instead of rewarding companies with contracts that voted for politicians, all everyone cared about was defeating the enemy.

My suggestion is that the military should put out specs for what it wants and then put out big cash prizes for getting it done similar to what was done with the Covid vaccine. Say a $1 billion prize for a modern tank design. And then a fixed price for each one delivered thereafter.

Re: The U.S. Air Force just admitted the F-35 stealth fighter has failed

#162

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

tandr wrote: post #33
nindalf wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The F-16 was introduced in 1978 and no new F-16s have been purchased since 2001. Are you suggesting that they don't want new F-16s in 2021 because ... they want to make money? Isn't the simpler explanation that maybe a 42-year old design is out of date?

B52 is even older, and still kicking (I think...)

They're planning to retire it after 95 years of service.

Re: The U.S. Air Force just admitted the F-35 stealth fighter has failed

#163

Post by nxm »

[deleted] wrote: post #129
misiti3780 wrote: post #86

The saddest thing about all of this IMO is they have been working on this for 14 years, and how much money was spent/wasted? Now, read about Skunkworks - they were able to build the SR71 (without supercomputers) in less than half that time and for a fraction of the cost. This isn't just planes, this seems to be everything nowadays. Fission was discovered in 1938/1939 and we dropped two bombs on Japan in 1945. No chan…

[deleted]

Abys? lowest unemployment in 50 years (including for minorities) before corona (out of his control) and first president in 40 years to NOT start a war. Not to mention the peace deals in the middle east. Give credit where it's due

Re: The U.S. Air Force just admitted the F-35 stealth fighter has failed

#165

Post by tiahura »

heymijo wrote: post #140
misiti3780 wrote: post #86

The saddest thing about all of this IMO is they have been working on this for 14 years, and how much money was spent/wasted? Now, read about Skunkworks - they were able to build the SR71 (without supercomputers) in less than half that time and for a fraction of the cost. This isn't just planes, this seems to be everything nowadays. Fission was discovered in 1938/1939 and we dropped two bombs on Japan in 1945. No chan…

Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) [0]. You might have missed this news. It’s a modern remix to the Kelly Johnson and Ben Rich days of developing legendary aircraft at Lockheed’s Skunkworks that you lamented the loss of. People in the know confirm it’s legit and shocking, in a good way. Especially compared to the failures of the F-35 and even the F-22’s development. [0] https://www.airforcemag.com/article/ropers-ng…

Roper is awesome. There’s a video of him describing the role of K8s in the next-gen process.

Re: The U.S. Air Force just admitted the F-35 stealth fighter has failed

#166

Post by hef19898 »

nradov wrote: post #38
paulie_a wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US air force didnt need a new airframe

The old airframes were not survivable in a contested environment, and there was no practical way to make them survivable. That's still true today.

Contested is the point. Contested by other jets, I'd say no. All other air forces with modern fighters are still using Gen 4 fighters at best. The true threat comes from anti-aircraft weapons. To the point developers of FCAS are worried about man-held missiles. These missiles can take down legacy as well as 5th gen fighters. That's also why saturation is a thing, overwhelming the enmy with numbers. At 100 mil a piece, that startegy might be a tad expensve with the F-35. Hence drones. Whether rones work or not has to be seen.

my bestguess is, that n a conventional conflict between industrilized states the air campaigns will be over after the first three major engangements or so. Because by then replacing the losses would ruin everyone.

Re: The U.S. Air Force just admitted the F-35 stealth fighter has failed

#167

Post by lakecresva »

missedthecue wrote: post #85
rayhendricks wrote: post #72

It did not fail at providing money to the military-industrial-congressional complex. But of course we need more fighter jets instead of Medicare for all and UBI. China is not going to send fighters over to Bomb the us mainland, this thing is totally unnecessary.

The total costs to keep all F-35s in the air until 2070 (likely after you and I are dead and in the ground), would not even cover 6 months of Medicare for all or UBI. Not sure how you can draw such an equivalence.

How are you calculating the cost of medicare for all?

Re: The U.S. Air Force just admitted the F-35 stealth fighter has failed

#168

Post by jetrink »

misiti3780 wrote: post #86

The saddest thing about all of this IMO is they have been working on this for 14 years, and how much money was spent/wasted? Now, read about Skunkworks - they were able to build the SR71 (without supercomputers) in less than half that time and for a fraction of the cost. This isn't just planes, this seems to be everything nowadays. Fission was discovered in 1938/1939 and we dropped two bombs on Japan in 1945. No chan…

> Now, read about Skunkworks - they were able to build the SR71 (without supercomputers) in less than half that time and for a fraction of the cost.

Not to mention the F-16 itself, which the F-35 was meant to replace:

1972: RFP for prototypes

1974: Maiden flight of the first prototype

1975: Production begins

1980: The aircraft officially enters service

Re: The U.S. Air Force just admitted the F-35 stealth fighter has failed

#169

Post by jboog »

heymijo wrote: post #140
misiti3780 wrote: post #86

The saddest thing about all of this IMO is they have been working on this for 14 years, and how much money was spent/wasted? Now, read about Skunkworks - they were able to build the SR71 (without supercomputers) in less than half that time and for a fraction of the cost. This isn't just planes, this seems to be everything nowadays. Fission was discovered in 1938/1939 and we dropped two bombs on Japan in 1945. No chan…

Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) [0]. You might have missed this news. It’s a modern remix to the Kelly Johnson and Ben Rich days of developing legendary aircraft at Lockheed’s Skunkworks that you lamented the loss of. People in the know confirm it’s legit and shocking, in a good way. Especially compared to the failures of the F-35 and even the F-22’s development. [0] https://www.airforcemag.com/article/ropers-ng…

Big if true but I'm super skeptical.

First of all how many years have we been hearing about how we'll have fully autonomous vehicles just around the corner? At least a decade.

How many years have we been hearing that human-like AI is just around the corner? At least since the 60's.

I'm skeptical (although optimistic) about massive tech breakthroughs in general. Even more so when it comes to military tech since so many in the mil. industrial complex stand to benefit from the trillions that the DoD sloughs off every few years for the next big thing.

Not an aviator but spent almost a decade in the military. You used to hear all the time about the latest and greatest tech that was going to change the way we fight.

At least in my nearly 10 years nothing really changed in any substantial way. incremental improvements, sure but no massive breakthroughs like are continually trumpeted in popular press.

I hope you're right though!

Re: The U.S. Air Force just admitted the F-35 stealth fighter has failed

#170

Post by jc01480 »

misiti3780 wrote: post #86

The saddest thing about all of this IMO is they have been working on this for 14 years, and how much money was spent/wasted? Now, read about Skunkworks - they were able to build the SR71 (without supercomputers) in less than half that time and for a fraction of the cost. This isn't just planes, this seems to be everything nowadays. Fission was discovered in 1938/1939 and we dropped two bombs on Japan in 1945. No chan…

Given a compelling need for innovation we could potentially do that. But today’s innovation is about social equities. Billions will be pumped into that for the next decade until - heaven forbid- there’s a new need for tools to perform catastrophic things.
Post reply on HN