F-35 News. USMC F-35B crash caused by manufacturing defect...

via Stars & Stripes.

The crash of a Marine Corps F-35 that temporarily grounded the entire fleet of next-generation jets in 2018 was caused by a manufacturing defect in a fuel tube made by a United Technologies subcontractor, according to congressional investigators.

The defect "caused an engine fuel tube to rupture during flight, resulting in a loss of power to the engine," the Government Accounting Office said this week in a report on major weapons systems that referred to the September crash in South Carolina. The Pentagon told the watchdog that it identified 117 aircraft - about 40% of the worldwide F-35 fleet at the time - with the same type of fuel tubes that had to be replaced.

The disclosure was the first official information about the crash since the Pentagon program office in late October issued a status statement while the Marine Corps was still conducting its investigation. United Technologies Corp.'s Pratt & Whitney unit "is fully responsible" for "the propulsion system and has the lead in working" the failure analyses, according to the statement at the time.

Story here. 

Amazing.

They want to ramp up production yet they're not able to build jets without defects that cause crashes?

I fear what will happen when they're pumping them out at a rate greater than 48 per year.

It's past time for them to slow down, get their shit together.  Oh and taking the F-35C off the table would be a tremendous help too.  Why waste time building such a small number of aircraft.

The Navy wants out and we should let them.  The USMC can buy F-18E/F and E/A-18 for the carrier and electronic attack mission sets.