COMBAT UNREADY PURCHASE

Re: “Air Force eyes F-35 stealth jets”, (BP, Dec 3).

RTAF commander-in-chief ACM Napadej Dhupatemiya wants to buy 8 F-35 stealth fighters at hopefully $70 million each. But, according to Forbes: “US Air Force leaders in early 2021 all but admitted what critics have been saying for many years — the $100-million F-35 stealth fighter is unreliable for hard, day-to-day use...

“Just how big of a mess is the F-35? Officials continue to struggle against a tide of F-35 design flaws.

“Nearly every time the engineers solve one problem, a new one is discovered. The F-35 still has 871 unresolved deficiencies.

“Ten of these are the more serious Category I deficiencies that ‘may cause death, severe injury, or severe occupational illness; may cause loss or major damage to a weapon system; critically restricts the combat readiness capabilities of the using organization.’

“The F-35 program made some reliability improvements in 2020, but is still failing to live up to its maintenance and sortie requirements, despite the fact that those expectations were set very low.” (Source: “After 20 years, the F-35 Stealth Fighter is Still Stuck in Testing,” Forbes, Feb 25, 2021).

Why buy a plane that, after 20 years of building and testing, still isn’t combat-ready, has 871 unresolved flaws, and is unreliable?

Burin Kantabutra