When it comes to the most well-known fighter in the world, the F-35 manufactured by the American company Lockheed Martin can be at the forefront.
In the eyes of many countries, the American F-35 is definitely one of the most advanced fighters in the world, and it is also a good thing that some countries dream of.
But just recently, something has gone terribly wrong with this good thing that many countries can't get in the middle of nowhere.
On April 18, Matt Gates, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, posted a complaint on overseas social media: Less than one-third of the F-35 fighters in active service in the U.S. Air Force are combat-capable, and this is a fact admitted by the Secretary of the U.S. Air Force himself.
"The Pentagon is giving too many rights to defense contractors who are cheating American taxpayers out of their money," Gates angrily said.
After learning the news, the American people are also feeling indignant about their country and the cause of national defense.
Even Musk couldn't help but jump out and mock the current US Air Force, complaining that only one-third of the fighters meet the standards.
According to an April 17 article by the U.S. military news website Defense One, "F-35 deliveries will not resume until July, and it will take a year or more for new fighters to enter combat."
The article mentions that since July 2023, the US military and political circles have refused to accept the Block 4 version of the new F-35 delivered by Lockheed Martin due to problems with the Technology Refresh-3 software, which provides the new F-35 with the additional computing power needed to upgrade its capabilities.
And this new technology was supposed to be put into service in April 23, but it has been postponed several times, and even US officials do not know when this problem will be resolved.
In other words, more than two-thirds of today's U.S. Air Force's ineffective F-35 fighters will have no replacement for a while.
Let's just say, is there a problem in the US Department of Defense that has allocated the castrated F-35 fighters sold to foreign countries to its own Air Force, or that Lockheed Martin has built too many castrated fighters, but it will not make normal aircraft.
Freezing three feet is not a day's cold, and the US Air Force has made such a big moth, which must have been accumulated over many years.
Back in 2021, there were reports in the United States that there were 35 technical flaws in the structure of the F-857, some of which would have a "critical impact on the completion of the mission" and even endanger the lives of pilots.
It is precisely these vulnerabilities that led the Belgian Ministry of Defense to refuse to accept the first batch of F-35A stealth fighters in August 2023, claiming that these fighters were produced in a non-complete technical version with various technical flaws.
At that time, there were already international voices criticizing Lockheed Martin for its inability to eliminate the shortcomings of the aircraft.
It's not that Lockheed Martin doesn't want to solve the problem, they have also proposed a solution to the White House.
In mid-December 2022, the F-35B short take-off and landing fighter used by the U.S. Marine Corps was involved in an accident in Texas, and the pilot was almost killed.
After the accident, it also quickly attracted the attention of the US military and political circles, and later investigation found that the cause of the accident was a "rare system failure" caused by engine surge.
Lockheed Martin admitted at the time that the engines on the plane were not ideal and proposed a solution, which was rejected by the Pentagon.
Lockheed Martin designers suggested that installing a more advanced F120 engine from General Electric would solve the problem.
That is obviously a more advanced engine, why should the US military and political circles still refuse?
In fact, the reason is simple, the stealth of the F-35 can only be guaranteed when the missile is in an embedded magazine.
The size of the F120 engine is too large, and after installation, it will occupy a certain position in the missile bay.
But if the missile is plugged in, then the old radar of the World War II era can detect the F-35 in flight.
In this way, the F-35 is still a stealth fighter, it is simply a live target.
In the case of Lockheed Martin's solution, it's no wonder that U.S. House of Representatives Matt Gates angrily accuses defense contractors of cheating taxpayers out of their money.
But then again, the pot of F-35 fighters without combat effectiveness of more than half of the US Air Force cannot be carried by Lockheed Martin alone.
Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has become the world's only superpower, and at the same time has formulated the so-called "dollar hegemony", wanting to harvest the world through the dollar, which has also created the "prosperity of Wall Street" and countless financial predators.
But behind the prosperity, the United States has gradually lost its heart from top to bottom, forgetting that the United States relied on its strong military manufacturing capabilities to create glory in World War II.
The United States has also put the egg of the economic lifeline into the only basket of finance, and has continuously transferred the industrial chain outward.
As a result, the United States is now unable to mass-produce F-35 fighters in a short period of time, even if it finds that there are problems with the fighters. Without practice, it is difficult to solve problems.
That being said, is it true that Lockheed Martin can't solve the problem?
The answer is clearly no.
The reason why we have not solved them, but have kept raising new problems, is that we hope that the US military will increase capital investment and thus make more profits.
In fact, as early as before, the "invisible corruption" scandal was exposed between the US military-industrial complex and politicians.
The Air Force Times reported that U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley sent a letter to Air Force Secretary Wilson asking why the coffee cups used by the Air Force cost $1,280 each.
And Wilson, in his reply to Grassley, nonchalantly admitted that the price of the coffee cup increased from $693 in 2016 to $1,280 in 2018. This is normal.
The USA Today website also published an article revealing that the US Air Force's sky-high procurement incident, the unit purchase price of the toilet seats of its C-17 and C-5 transport aircraft was as high as 10,000 US dollars.
The Washington Post also revealed a news that the U.S. military spent $6 million from Italy to airlift nine goats to Afghanistan, and the official explanation was to "boost the cashmere industry" for locals.
But it didn't take long for the 9 goats to disappear, and the British newspaper The Guardian speculated that it was very likely to be stewed by the Americans themselves.
Even in a parliament on April 17, U.S. lawmakers pointed out that the U.S. Air Force even costs $90,000 for a bag of screw parts, while the market price of this small screw part is less than $100.
Although US congressmen accuse Lockheed Martin of defrauding taxpayers of their money, why not a much larger "Lockheed Martin Corporation" of the US government?
Some time ago, Stephen Whiting, commander of the US Space Command, said at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee of the US Congress that China is developing its space military capabilities at an "alarming rate" and has "greatly improved its ability to monitor, track and target forces of the United States and its allies in low-earth orbit."
The top commander of the U.S. Space Command demanded the future budget of the U.S. Space Command in front of members of Congress by declaring that space has become a "growing security challenge" and listing China as a "major threat" in the space domain.
What is the essential difference between this and Lockheed Martin's failure to solve the problems of fighter jets?
In this incident, two-thirds of the U.S. Air Force F-35 fighters were unable to carry out their missions, which is not only a problem of Lockheed Martin, but a long-standing ill of American corruption.
Defense contractors are squeezing the wool out of the U.S. Department of Defense, and the U.S. Department of Defense is staring at Congress, which is squeezing money out of taxpayers.
Layers of distribution, layers of corruption, in the end it is not the American people who are hurt.
And the remaining F-35 fighters, which are less than a third of the mission-ready fighters, may lose their combat effectiveness one day!