While the acquisition price of the F35 continues to decline, this is not the case for the list of critical malfunctions to which Lockheed's device is exposed. Revealed by the Bloomberg channel, a Pentagon report indeed points out many weaknesses of the F35, sometimes very critical.
Thus, the F35B, the short takeoff and landing version of the stealth fighter, which notably equips the US Marines Corps and the Royal Air Force to board LHDs and STOBAR aircraft carriers, would be subject to very premature aging. important to the airframe, limiting the operational life of the aircraft to 2100 flight hours, instead of the 8000 hoped for. An onboard fighter flying an average of 150 to 200 hours of flight per year, the F35B would thus exhaust all of its airframe potential in less than 12 years, a far cry from the 40 years promised by the manufacturer.
In addition, the F35s would be very exposed to cyber risks, and would demonstrate a very significant lack of precision in terms of Air-Ground combat. Above all, the maintenance of the device could not be more complex, and 80% of the qualitative and quantitative objectives defined in the device specifications would still not be achieved.