The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has decided to ground 11 of its F-35A fighter jets on Sunday, following an incident in Texas last week that saw a US Air Force F-35B Lightning II crash during an attempted landing.
The most expensive warplanes in history appear to have similar deficiencies to the one that crashed in Texas last week.
From the findings and the information transmitted, it was found that these planes require a dedicated inspection in order to rule out the possibility of a repeated malfunction in the Israeli system.
An initial review showed that the US-supplied aircraft might have similar defects that led to the Texas crash, IDF said. The decision to ground the jets was still taken out of precaution since it was not yet clear if the Israeli F-35s have that similar issue.
The US F-35B crashed during a vertical landing procedure at an air base in North Texas last Thursday, prompting the pilot to eject from the jet nearly at runway level. The Israeli F-35A lacks vertical landing capability entirely.
It is the second time Israel has halted its F-35 flights this year alone. Back in July, Tel Aviv had already grounded the jets for some time after an ejection-seat malfunction was discovered. The USA grounded its entire fleet of F-35’s at that time.
Touted by Washington and US-based arms and aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Martin as one of the most advanced fighter jets ever developed, the F-35 project has been a costly one for US taxpayers, who’ve footed the bill for a long series of delays, malfunctions and cost overruns.
Yet, America’s allies, including Canada, Germany and Finland, have all lined up to buy the plane. Ottawa will spend $15.2 billion on US-manufactured warplanes despite PM Justin Trudeau’s campaign pledge.
As a promotional move, Ottawa will negotiate solely with US-based aerospace giant Lockheed Martin for the acquisition of 88 F-35 aircraft, Canadian officials announced at a press conference on Monday.
The deal has an expected price tag of Can$19 billion (US$15.2 billion) with the government characterizing it as a replacement of existing forces rather than an expansion of military spending.
It is the culmination of a 12-year process by which Canada has sought to replace its outdated CF-18 jets.
Earlier this month, Berlin announced the decision to replace its fleet of outdated Tornado fighters with up to 35 US-made F-35 stealth aircraft, with the local press saying it is an open secret that Germany needs modern aircraft to carry US nuclear bombs stored in the country in case of a NATO war against Russia.
In February, Finland also penned a multibillion-dollar deal to purchase 64 F-35 jets to replace its current Hornet fleet, rejecting alternative options from other plane-makers including Dassault Rafale of France and Eurofighter Typhoon from Great Britain.
RT. com / ABC Flash-Point News 2022.
In Canada’s case, Forced to buy”
Mr Trudeau, why not take an other 12 years to think about this replacement Canada has far more pressing issues and requirements. Our National debt. has practically doubled since 2015 under your governance ( 612 $ Billion to 1,1 $ Trillion. ) and we can not blame everything on Covid-19. We are less than 30 Million paying taxes and over 4% unemployed. Canada has the second largest land mass on the planet BUT 80 % of it is empty, why not concentrate on the urgent need of significantly increasing our numbers then we can buy toys and play with the… Read more »
Ty-smart: ” So-called “top-notch” Patriot batteries are only 5% efficient, claimed a former military article” Forget the Article, anybody who knows some advanced Math can prove that Patriot Batteries are BS … a Harvard Math guy said as much way back when … he was poo-pooed by certain members of the Establishment. Then after trials and data analysis he was proven correct; the Establishment went quiet … the poor bastard probably lost his job. Sometimes it doesn’t pay to publicize ones technical abilities; one can get assassinated by Mossad if one isn’t working for Israel or USA … a lot… Read more »
American military are pretty crap at making anything within budget that works… Planes that can’t fly in rain, destroyers that have no main weapons or cost 8 billion each… Americans are a joke like their political system.