Video appears to show UK F-35 fighter crash after take-off

[Eugene]

Source: BBC

Video appears to show UK F-35 fighter crash after take-off

By Jonathan Beale
Defence Correspondent

29 November 2021

Dramatic video of what appears to be an F-35 jet crashing off the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth has been posted on social media.

The footage shows a pilot ejecting as the £100m aircraft falls into the sea.

A UK F-35 jet crashed soon after take-off earlier this month while the carrier was conducting flying operations in the Mediterranean.

The MoD has said it was too soon to comment on the footage and efforts are ongoing to recover the aircraft.

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Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-59470276

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1. Today's F-35As Not Worth Including In High-End War Games According To Air Force General

Today's F-35As Not Worth Including In High-End War Games According To Air Force General

A senior U.S. Air Force officer has said that there is no value in including the service's current fleet of F-35A Joint Strike Fighters in tabletop wargames simulating future high-end conflicts, such as one covering an American military response to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That same individual also called into question how relevant any of the service's existing examples of these fighter jets would be for conducting combat operations near or over the territory of a near-peer adversary, including China. This all comes at a time when the F-35 program, as a whole, is facing a new surge of scrutiny, including from members of Congress.

more:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sebastienroblin/2021/07/31/f-35a-jet-price-to-rise-but-its-sustainment-costs-that-could-bleed-air-force-budget-dry/?sh=5e459ae932df

A number of critical problems with the F-35 program. Among them short range, low payload, high operational costs, high "sustainment costs," and multiple serious deficiencies. It's expensive to take the Ferrari out of the garage.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sebastienroblin/2021/07/31/f-35a-jet-price-to-rise-but-its-sustainment-costs-that-could-bleed-air-force-budget-dry/?sh=5e459ae932df

This disagreement heightened in February, when Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown floated the idea of designing a less expensive, non-stealthy follow-on fighter to replace the service’s oldest F-16s, instead of replacing them with the F-35, as had been planned for decades.

The service is currently evaluating its options through a tactical aircraft study to inform the fiscal 2023 budget, which could result in cuts to the Air Force’s program of record for 1,763 F-35As.

https://www.defensenews.com/training-sim/2021/04/12/a-us-air-force-war-game-shows-what-the-service-needs-to-hold-off-or-win-against-china-in-2030/#.YHR3VTpA2e8.twitter