New York Times: Despite Decades of Stealth, Sticking Points Bedevil F-35 Jet
One of the earliest stealth weapons on record was a stone used by the young Israelite David to kill the Philistine giant Goliath. In the biblical account, David shunned the conventional armaments of his time: sword, helmet, armor. Instead, he went forth with a slingshot and a few stones, kept undetected in a pouch. As any schoolchild knows, one well-aimed fling was all it took to put Goliath down for good. The big guy never saw it coming.
It is not clear to what extent David tested his weapon before doing battle, but he presumably had experimented. The first Book of Samuel tells how he had earlier struck and killed a lion and a bear that menaced the sheep he tended.
In a sense, not much is different with today’s far more sophisticated arsenals; development and testing remain essential. Only the costs and the stakes are considerably higher now, as is made evident in this latest offering from the video documentary producers of Retro Report, who have focused on a supersonic stealth plane called the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. While still a work in progress, it has already become the most expensive weapons project in military history.
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More News On The F-35
Ejector seats in new £100m British fighter jets will only work if pilots weigh more than 14 stone -- Daily Mail
Lockheed Martin and F-35 program office confident they can deal with safety issues on ejection seat -- Ottawa Citizen
F-35 fires first AIM-9X missile -- US Air Force
US F-35 Jet Finally to Face Test of Dropping Bombs on Targets -- Sputnik
Oil price, weak currency challenge Norwegian F-35 buy -- Flight Global
This Is The Most Important Technology On the F-35 -- Defense One
How Drones Are Making the F-35 Obsolete -- T.X. Hammes, Fiscal Times/Defense One
Air Force pilot talks moving from F-16 to F-35 -- Autoblog