US Order the Withdrawal of F-35 Stealth Fighter Jets Around the World, What's Up?

US Order the Withdrawal of F-35 Stealth Fighter Jets Around the World

Washington - The United States (US) Pentagon ordered the withdrawal of F-35 stealth fighter jets that have been sent around the world. The reason was that there was a problem with the engine which caused several planes to be grounded and new deliveries stopped.

The withdrawal order for about 890 aircraft that had been sent to various countries was issued by the Pentagon's F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO), as reported by Defense News, Saturday (4/3/2023).

JPO JPO F-35s ordered repairs earlier this week, and repair and reassembly times can take up to 90 days. The 890 aircraft to be recalled are those that defense contractor Lockheed Martin has shipped around the world, including those that have been grounded since the Dec. 15 crash at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth in Texas.

An investigation found that engine vibration caused the crash, in which the hovering F-35 landed vertically and suddenly bounced upwards before taxiing forward and taxiing with its nose and right wing. The incident involved a variant of the F-35B Lightning II fighter jet used by the US Marine Corps.

Lockheed responded to the crash by suspending acceptance flights for the new F-35s, which were required before the planes could be delivered to customers. The Pentagon and maker of the F-35 propulsion system, Pratt & Whitney, halted deliveries of the engines last December. Investigators are reportedly tracing the problem to engine vibration, which JPO F-35 said is rare and is considered a problem in newly produced F-35s.

A Pratt & Whitney executive told reporters earlier this week that engineers had developed an "immediate workaround" for the problem and that some of the fighters needed to be rebuilt. However, this JPO F-35 order applies to all such fifth-generation stealth fighter jets, including those supplied to foreign militaries.

The US has sold the plane to many countries, including Israel, Japan and the UK. JPO F-35 said it plans to work closely with the military services that fly the F-35 and international partners to ensure they understand the technical instructions. "The safety of the flight crew is JPO's top concern," the office said in a statement.

Some US lawmakers estimate it will cost $1.3 trillion to sustain the nation's F-35 fleet, due in part to poor reliability. According to estimates, only 30% of F-35 fighters are capable of performing all assigned tasks at any point in time, on average.

US Member of Parliament Adam Smith, a Democrat who serves on the Armed Services Committee, called the F-35 program a "rathole." The F-35 is far from alone in its predicament. Only four of the 49 types of US military aircraft will be reliable enough to meet their "mission capability goals" for most of the year between 2011 and 2021, according to a US government report issued last November.