Jets ordered by the Bundeswehr
Report: F35 stealth jets have hundreds of bugs
03/21/2022, 4:59 p.m
The Bundeswehr wants to replace the Tornado fleet introduced 40 years ago with F35 stealth jets. But that could be more difficult than originally thought. Because a Pentagon report finds more than 800 weak points in the jets – half a dozen could lead to the crash.
According to a Pentagon report, the F35 stealth jets ordered by the federal government allegedly have significant shortcomings. This reports the “world” with reference to the NGO “Project on Government Oversight“(POGO). According to this, 845 errors were found in the future Bundeswehr jet – six of them are serious and could lead to a crash. The USA is said to have already drawn the first consequences from the report. Instead of the original 94 F35 jets, the USA wants -Order Air Force only 61.
Just last week, the federal government announced that it intends to equip the Air Force with the US F-35 stealth jet. The machines from the manufacturer Lockheed Martin are to gradually replace the Tornado fleet introduced more than 40 years ago, announced Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht. According to a report by the Pioneer news portal, 15 billion euros were targeted for the purchase of a Tornado successor. With the F-35, the Bundeswehr is getting “the most modern combat aircraft in the world,” said Air Force Inspector Ingo Gerhartz.
However, the new Pentagon report paints a different picture. Accordingly, the jets are very unreliable. The so-called availability of the F35 fleets is only 65 percent. This means the proportion of jets that are ready for use at all times and are not down for maintenance work. The standard for other fleets is between 75 and 80 percent.
The F-35’s high-performance engine also has problems. According to the “Welt” there were more than 50 US F35s with engine failure in the hangar at the end of September – a lack of spare parts is said to have caused the problems. The Pentagon report states that “lack of spare parts inventories and limited component-level repair capabilities are contributing to spare parts supply shortages,” POGO reports.
Not only does the frequency of F-35 failures affect the overall fleet performance, but also the duration of repairs. As reported by POGO, maintenance workers have found that repairs are taking, on average, more than twice as long as originally planned by Lockheed Martin. The F-35’s engines, canopy and stealth plating are just a few of the components cited as the main cause of the lengthy repairs.
Complicated software
A special ability of the F35 fleet is said to be the digital networking of all jets. They should be called flying computers, as POGO writes. But that could make the fleet increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks. Cybersecurity tests revealed a number of vulnerabilities.
In addition, software development is apparently much slower than expected. As the “Welt” reports, the development of a software update that would enable compatibility with certain free-fall nuclear bombs has also been delayed – a major reason for the interest of the German Bundeswehr.