The media is LYING to you about the F-35 (here's why)

– BREAK –

Few aircraft in history are as controversial as Lockheed Martin’s Joint Strike Fighter — the F-35 Lightning II. This aircraft, projected to cost the United States more than $2 trillion dollars over its six-plus decades of service, saw repeated cost overruns, production delays, and technical setbacks over the 17 years since it first took to the sky, and today, you don’t have to go far to find someone calling this seemingly troubled fighter a failure.

But this perception doesn't reflect reality... And there's good reason for that.

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Citations:

[als]

I'm a retired Crew Chief and the media doesn't know jack sh$t about military aviation...

[petecomps]

Comparing the F-35 crash rate to the F-16 is also skewed by the fact that the F-16 is strictly a runway bird, whereas the F-35B is STOVL, and the F-35C is a carrier plane. The B and C variants of the F-35 have far more dangerous operating modes, so one would expect their crash rate to be far higher than the F-16. The fact that the opposite is true lends further credence to the F-35's superior safety record.

[keinlieb]

Public: Why don't we see more good news!

Media: Because when we post good news, no one reads it.

[MrCaveman]

When I went into the Air Force back in the late 70's one of the 1st aircraft I worked was the F-15. In fact one of the airframe's was a 74 model! Anyway I remember how the Media treated the newish F-16 with all it's "new" tech. How the fly by wire was super dangerous. Cost overruns, etc. But it turned out to be one of the best Fighter's ever developed. I was also lucky enough to get to fly in both Aircraft during my 24 years in.

[Sturgeonmeister]

I remember when they were proposing the F-15 and many critics were complaining about how the F-15 was too expensive, too complicated for maintainers to work on and only a "single " mission aircraft.

[tmack]

Before I retired as an engineering manager from a major aerospace defense contractor, I had the pleasure of being a system engineering manager for a major F35 subsystem. I had worked in aerospace over 20 years when I took the position and I was amazed by the complex engineering of the F35. The manufacturing tolerances, details and requirements were also very stringent. It was one of the most challenging and complex aircraft systems that I had worked on.

Lockheed and the government gave us the challenge to reduce cost and we were successful at improving manufacturing quality and reducing costs by visiting supplier all over the world.

The F35 got so much negative attention but those who know about the system and details can hear the criticism but we can’t come out publicly and discuss details about why the reporting was incorrect. The platform had a lot of challenges but it was the most impressive system that I had ever worked with.

[fire]

"Few aircraft in history have suffered the sort of reputational sabotage..."
V-22 at the back of the room clears it's throat.

[Sebby]

In the US we love to critics our programs and praise the enemy. Criticising the F35 is fine to improve but to say it’s bad and the SU57 is so good is just disinformation or dishonest

[mwracingstevenmueller]

The combination of educational information related to both the F-35 and media bias makes this one of the best pieces I’ve seen of yours. Simply awesome.

[jcwoodman]

Whenever I hear a story about how an aircraft system is bad, overpriced, etc. I remember a 60 minutes episode in the late 70s breaking down how overprieced & fragile the 'new' F15 Eagle program was...

[noir-jaune]

Not just lying they are nearly absolutely clueless about what they are talking about.

[rudolphpyatt]

As an ex-journalist (and the son of one) who became a lawyer, thank you for this. I tell friends of mine all the time to avoid jumping at headlines. There is ALWAYS more to the story than a sensational headline. Alex, you've probably come across it, but a book I read in my undergraduate journalism days (Spring semester 1987, a year before I graduated) laid out exactly these issues: "Amusing Ourselves To Death: Public Discourse In The Age of Show Business". I strongly recommend this book to everyone as an antidote to the current media landscape.

[bucky]

A lot of the naysayers of the F-35 are elements of Congress who want to use the money for other pet projects, rival service command members wanting some of the budget, and a tremendous amount of Russian and Chinese propaganda.
The F-35 is not meant to be the ultimate dogfighter as so many seem to think is essential (or even relatively common) in modern combat scenarios. If any aircraft gets within dogfighting range of the 35 or the 22, the pilot has made an epically bad series of decisions/mistakes.

[Phrancis]

Honestly, the baddies not realizing how capable this plane is means they'll underestimate it. It's also the inverse of how fears of a superior Mig25 lead to the creation of a true combat legend.

[whateverrandomnumber]

You need a raise from Ground News. This whole video was an ad for them! 😂😂

[bpisan]

My hometown is home of the 173rd fighter wing. They’ve trained F4, F16, and F15 pilots and starting next year they are transitioning to F35s and I could not be more stoked.

[RetroGenetic]

So, I clicked to see "Wait, why is F-35 shit this time?" knowing full well about the plane and misperception, and end up getting amazing video about media perception, great job!

[hobiegary]

Welcome back to Alex! It is so nice to listen to Sandboxx News.

[larrymccolloch]

ignoring the f35 stuff, this was the best discussion I've seen about media bias, the money that drives media bias and the

[Reever]

F-111 got a lot of grief in its time. I was fortunate to have an uncle that was an engineer that worked on the Aardvark, and he clarified a great deal of misinformation.