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Is This Thing On? Pentagon’s Trillion Dollar Warplane’s Radar Doesn’t Work

© AP Photo / LM OtteroLockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter
Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter - Sputnik International
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The troubled $1.5 trillion dollar F-35 fighter jet is facing yet another problem, this time with its radar, which requires the pilot to turn it off and then back on each time it stops working.

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In development since 2001, the Lockheed Martin plane has faced a slew of problems, and is failing even the most basic flight and sensor tests. The beleaguered “crown jewel” of the US military’s technology investment portfolio has had so many problems that the jets are expected to cost over $142 million each.

The radar failings are just the latest problem for the F-35: it previously had structural problems that put it at risk to lightening, weight issues, software bugs, gatling guns that do not work, and a limited fuel supply making it unable to stay in an area to offer air protection for ground troops.

The website Shadowproof also noted that there are concerns about whether the F-35 can be traditionally fueled, as they have a problem with accepting hot fuel — the only solution that the Air Force has come up with for that problem so far is to paint fuel trucks a darker color to absorb less sunlight and keep temps down — hardly a long term solution.

The jet has proven to be such a failure that it does not even hold up to the F-16, which was introduced in 1978.

“Some systems like the radar control are fundamentally worse than the earlier version, which is not a good sign,” Keith Joiner, who is responsible for evaluating the plane’s performance for the Australian defence force, told Radio National Background Briefing.

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“The next software version is block 4. It won’t be available until 2020. So there’ll be nothing but fixing bugs in the original software between 2013 and 2020.”

Shockingly, the massively expensive jet, which is primarily software driven, has also not been tested for resistance to hacking yet.

“The only system that has done cyber security, vulnerability and penetration testing is the logistics software. So ordering spares. And it didn’t go very well,” Joiner explained.

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