"When the Marine Corps performed the tests aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp, it stated that the F-35 has passed all scheduled tests. Those, however, were not real tests of functioning, both from a formal and an informal point of view ”. The note by Michael Gilmore, director of the Pentagon's operational testing department, could trigger an uproar over the most expensive project in Pentagon history.
Gilmore writes: "The tests did not demonstrate the readiness of the F-35 for actual operational implementations due to the way they were carried out. That test that took place at the end of May, on board the USS Wasp, should have been carried out in a real environment and not in the optimal one recreated during the redeployment ".
The memorandum, reported by Bloomberg was obtained a few hours ago from the Project on Government Oversight through the Freedom of Information Act.
“The tests took place without other types of aircraft that usually share the space on the flight deck. The key mission systems then, were not installed or even not used. The F-35 did not carry any bombs while the uniformed personnel was assisted by external specialized technicians, who would have been absent in real combat operations ".
The Marine Corps did not comment on the memorandum. But Gilmore's office went further, pointing out that the F-35 used in the tests also encountered problems. "The reliability of the aircraft was quite poor and it was difficult for the Marines to be able to keep more than three (of the six fighters on board) F-35 a day."
Gilmore would also have found a discrepancy in the number of flight hours among all the fighters deployed. The memorandum concludes by suggesting to the Marines to conduct another test in an "aggressive" demonstration and in a real context.
(photo: US Navy)
