F-35 can't fly near lightning storms - lemon files

Far out, what a bloody lemon. You could throw a rock and it'd fly better than this monstrosity.

So the new wiz bang F-35 lemons can't fly within 40km of a lightning storm. That number again, 40km. If they do they may have their fuel tanks ignite. Lovely. So all an enemy plane would have to do to get away I guess is to fly near a storm? *sheesh*

There's also the previously reported problems that it can't turn fast enough etc. 

Thankfully the gov here appears to strangely cautious, very unlike the gung ho Abbott. Still, I dunno why they just don't cancel the whole deal. What a dead set waste of money. And they're going after poverty stricken welfare recipients for money FFS. 

US Air Force Lieutenant General Chris Bogdan, who heads the US military's $16 billion JSF program, admits the F-35 Lightning II jet can't fly within 40km of a lightning storm because its fuel tanks could ignite.

"Will this problem occur in the future? No, because we have the known fixes for it and we will fix it," Lt-Gen told ABC TV.

The Lockheed Martin JSF is a fifth-generation combat aircraft featuring stealth capability - low visibility to radar - and advanced sensors to detect enemy aircraft.

But the program has experienced technical problems, rising costs and delays.

Australia is looking to acquire up to 100 JSFs to form the backbone of the RAAF air combat fleet.

So far, the federal government has firmly committed to just two.

But in last year's budget the government deferred signing a deal for the next 12 aircraft for two years.

A JSF critic, US defence analyst Pierre Sprey, told the ABC the JSF was inferior to the widely used F-16 - an aircraft dating from the early 1970s which remains in production.

"We have an airplane that can't turn to escape fighters, can't turn to escape missiles, sluggish in acceleration because it's so big and fat and draggy and doesn't have enough motor for the weight," he said.

"My prediction is the airplane will become such an embarrassment that it will be cancelled before 500 airplanes are built." news.com.au