DOT&E report shows that the Marines/Defense Reporters lied about the operational test aboard the WASP...

Thanks to Eric Palmer Blog for the link!

via War is Boring Blog...

The Marine Corps named this demonstration “Operational Test One,” but it turns out it wasn’t actually an operational test, “in either a formal or an informal sense of the term.” To count as an operational test, conditions should closely match realistic combat conditions.
But DOT&E found the demonstration “did not — and could not — demonstrate that Block 2B F-35B is operationally effective or suitable for use in any type of limited combat operation, or that it was ready for real-world operational deployments, given the way the event was structured.”

A faulty test?  Who would have thought...wait...damn near anyone with brain cells...it gets better though.  Remember all the glowing reports we got from Defense Reporters and the Assistant Commandant about how great everything was going?...

Maintainers aboard the ship had their hands full during the test. One aircraft lost a “turkey feather” retaining pin in the engine when the plane first landed aboard the ship. This rendered the aircraft Not Mission Capable (NMC), an acronym which is repeated over and over again in the report.

But what did the Assistant Commandant for Aviation say about IOC?

“A lot of people said, or had conjecture, that the Marines, me, were just going to declare IOC regardless. You have 10 jets, you’re going to declare,” he said.
“We have a very stringent requirement for what the airplanes are able to do, and we were hell-bent on measuring and making sure we had what we said we were going to have in order to declare initial operating capability.”

Seems like we were right when we said that the F-35 was gonna be pencil whipped into service.  The F-35 wasn't ready for sea trials, isn't ready for combat and the Assistant Commandant for Aviation lacks integrity.

Does belief in a weapon system and what it MIGHT deliver in the future excuse lies, deception and spinning in the present?  Maybe if you're a politician but not if you're a Marine.

Read the War is Boring story here.