No supersonic flight for the USN/USMC F-35s...

Thanks to Nuno for the link!

via Defense News.

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.

The problem may make it impossible for the Navy’s F-35C to conduct supersonic intercepts.

“This issue was closed on December 17, 2019 with no further actions and concurrence from the U.S. services,” the F-35 JPO statement read. “The [deficiency report] was closed under the category of ‘no plan to correct,’ which is used by the F-35 team when the operator value provided by a complete fix does not justify the estimated cost of that fix.

Here.

So in essence the US Navy and Marine Corps are fielding a subsonic fighter.

Simply freaking amazing.

One of you aviation geeks tell me something.  How is the F-35 gonna do fleet defense against high performance Chinese aircraft if it can't even get up to meet them?

This is actually happening and no one is ringing the alarm bells?  Something is seriously broken in the Marine Corps.

Forget the fighter attack mission.

The F-35 can do attack but it can't do the fighter portion.  So instead of a multirole fighter we have a vertical take off A-6 that can sorta do deep strike missions.

Yeah.

It's time to call Boeing and buy some Block III Super Hornets.