Washington:Â An ambitious project of the United States to create a modern fighter-bomber of the fifth generation F-35 Lightning II (“Lightning II”) has been delayed to produce results.
Developed by the American company Lockheed Martin fighter plane has not passed tests for frost and storm management at design level. U.S. military magazines indicate that design as well as production can take another five to six years now. Therefore this $ 1 trillion project is halted for the time being for technical flaws.
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a family of single-seat, single-engine, fifth generation multi-role fighters under development to perform ground attack, reconnaissance, and air defense missions with stealth capability. The F-35 has three main models; the F-35A is a conventional takeoff and landing variant, the F-35B is a short take off and vertical-landing variant, and the F-35C is a carrier-based variant.
The F-35 is descended from the X-35, the product of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program. JSF development is being principally funded by the United States. The partner nations are either NATO members or close U.S. allies. It is being designed and built by an aerospace industry team led by Lockheed Martin. The F-35 carried out its first flight on 15 December 2006. However, some manufacturing faults at design level were observed and it is still in the phase of mass manufacturing.
