The Pentagon will have to live with limits on F-35’s supersonic flight

An issue that risks damage to the F-35’s tail section if the aircraft needs to maintain supersonic speeds is not worth fixing and will instead be addressed by changing the operating parameters, the F-35 Joint Program Office told Defense News in a statement Friday.

Washington

Source: The first F-35C Lightning II sortie takes off from the U.S. Navy F-35 Strike Fighter Squadron VFA 101 at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. A design issues means the Navy's and Marine Corps' F-35 versions will have some limits on supersonic flights. (Samuel King Jr./U.S. Air Force)

The deficiency, first reported by Defense News in 2019, means that at extremely high altitudes, the U.S. Navy’s and Marine Corps’ versions of the F-35 jet can only fly at supersonic speeds for short bursts of time before there is a risk of structural damage and loss of stealth capability.

Source: A Sailor fuels an F-35C Lightning II, assigned to the "Argonauts" of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 147, on the flight deck aboard Nimitz...