F-35 pilots left blind

The ill-fated F-22 fighter jet isn’t the only aircraft that has the Pentagon scratching their head. A new report published by the US Government Accountability Office reveals that the insanely expensive F-35 plane has its fair share of problems too.

As the US Air Force tries to examine the culprit behind the dozens of reported incidents logged onboard its fleet of F-22s, its allegedly more advanced sister plane isn’t sitting too pretty either. According to the GAO’s annual report on the F-35, the future of the program pegged at costing the Pentagon more than $1.5 trillion over the next three decades is up in the air. The planes, on the other hand — well, not so much.

At the center of the controversy keeping Air Force officials scrambling for explanations is a state-of-the-art visor that is supposed to provide pilots with up-to-the-second information about the aircraft’s every move. The report says that the visor is "integral to the mission systems architecture,” which is now being jeopardized because the headgear isn’t providing pilots with the right information. The problem seems to be with the visor’s inability to counter the turbulence the planes encounter during their mission that move them at upwards of 1,200 miles-per-hour, which is instead creating an error being called “display jitter,” described as “the undesired shaking of display, making symbology unreadable.”

Since the F-35 is expected to operate in tandem with a correctly calibrated visor, these jitters aren’t just causing headaches for the pilots expected to wear them. The website Foreign Policy reports that since the system relies on working headgear, the Pentagon is now developing a replacement piece that is expected to add another $80 million to the program’s price tag, which has already exceeded the estimated cost by around $1 billion.

Although the F-35 isn’t expected to be up and running until 2018, the actual launch date might be even later. The GAO’s report reveals that the plane also has been documented to have problems with landing in tight spaces and the software that helps power it is in desperate need of an upgrade. Then there is another issue involving the craft’s tailhook, which, if corrected, might cause even more problems to arise. If redesigned, the GAO says that "other aircraft structural modifications may also be required,” skyrocketing the completion cost to even more astronomical numbers.

Amid testing of the fleet, the Air Force has already grounded around $400 billion worth of F-35 fighters no fewer than three times. Earlier this year, US Air Force Major General John F. Thompson, deputy Joint Strike Force Program executive officer, told reporters that the military vowed to see no further delays in the F-35 program that has so far been marred with mishaps. Both Britain and Australia had expressed interesting in purchasing F-35s from the Pentagon to be used in their own military, but in March asked for more time to consider the contract after the last slew of incidents had foreign air forces reconsidering.

EADS to propose joint production of Eurofighter with South Korea: official

European aerospace and defense group EADS is set this week to propose joint production of its Eurofighter Typhoon with South Korea, a proposal that would sweeten its bid to win Seoul's multi-billion dollar tender offer for combat fighter purchases, a company official said Sunday.

EADS is set to make the offer at a military forum to be held on Tuesday at the War Memorial in Seoul, the official said on the condition of anonymity.

If South Korea selects the Eurofighter, the proposal will allow South Korea to become the world's fifth nation with the capacity to produce the two-engine, multi-role combat aircraft, following Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain, the official said.

The Eurofighter, Boeing's F-15 SE and Lockheed Martin's F-35A, are competing to win the huge deal, worth upward of 10 trillion won (US$8.6 billion), to sell 60 advanced combat fighters to South Korea, which will choose a supplier in October.

Many analysts believe EADS has only a slim chance of winning the deal, given the strong military alliance between South Korea and the U.S.

Recently, Lockheed's decision to conduct performance tests of its F-35 using simulators, not an actual test flight by a South Korean pilot, has stirred up controversy here.

South Korea has purchased 60 of Boeing's F-15 fighter jets since 2002 under the first two stages of the fighter modernization program, code-named "F-X."