A Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighter jet is seen in its hanger at Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland October 28, 2015. REUTERS/GARY CAMERON
Martin Matishak, Fiscal Times: The F-35’s Billion-Dollar Brain Fails an IQ Test
The latest problem with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter? There might be something seriously wrong with the gold-plated aircraft’s brain.
A Government Accountability Office report released Thursday raises concerns about the jet's $16.7 billion Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS). The software is essentially the brain that enables the fifth-generation warplane to operate, tracking everything from the amount of time the aircraft spends in the air to when the engine needs a tune-up.
The roughly $400 billion F-35 effort has had more than its share of software hiccups already, highlighted by recent findings that the aircraft’s billions of lines of computer code might be vulnerable to hacking.
If the bugs persist, it could have a cascading effect on the rest of the Defense Department’s timeline for the warplane, which is already years behind schedule. Serious problems with the logistics system could delay important program milestones, including the U.S. Air Force declaring its version of the jet ready for deployment later this year.
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WNU Editor: This blog has been covering this story for a long time .... The F-35's Software Problems Are Still Unresolved. On a more optimistic note, this pilot says that there are problems .... but do not worry .... What It’s Really Like To Fly The F-35: A Marine Pilot Speaks (Investors.com). What's my take .... I am worried.