What needs to happen is that the MIlitary Industrial Complex needs new blood. Lockheed and Boeing have gotten fat on America's dime since we let the military industrial base consolidate after the fall of the USSR. We went from like 50 different companies making American weapons systems to 5.
I disagree. Lockheed and boeing just modernized did the same thing every American company that didn't close their doors or get bought. American workers know how to make quality products. American engineers know how to design them. American CEOs, the winners, do not give a crap about anything but their own greed. Every American industry needs new blood. I don't want to get sucked out the side of a 737, I don't want our marine airmen dying in it defective f-35, and I don't want to walk down main Street and see that everything's closed and there's nothing left but a Walmart. It's all the same thing
Yeah it would be nice to have you in the recruiting depo alls i got was "We don't give a shit" people who step up and go to the recruiting stations clearly aren't going there to waste time. But the military just naturally like to do that waste "allot" of time.
As a former LM employee, all I can tell you is that you are correct in assuming the QC has plummeted, all in order to meet the production schedules. I keep in touch with current employees and trust me, they don't care about the employees, so why would they care about the quality. They only care about getting it delivered.
People leaving tools behind sounds like disgruntled employees. Maybe they aren't paying them enough and their passion for the job has left the chat. It's happening in video game industries, I can tell you that.
I work at Lockheed on the flight line. I can tell you without a doubt that the men and women I work with take their jobs very seriously! Are we perfect? No. Is perfection our goal? Yes. It is easy to armchair quarterback the Lockheed’s and Boeings. Our customer is the government. The government puts requirements built in or intentionally left out of parts, and processes to save themselves money. We also have accountants at Lockheed that keep tract of these requirements. If it saves Lockheed money then by all means give the customer what they want. What they want maybe detrimental to the jet, but not in a catastrophic way. Do these Lochheed accountants want a successful quality jet? Of course! Does the government want a perfect jet? Of course! People also forget that the F-35 is the first iteration of a 5th generation aircraft. Some of the systems on the F-35 weren’t even invented yet, or perfected yet. It was decided by Uncle Sam and Lockheed to develop as we were building the jet. They decided this to save money. We have had 1 class one mishap at the factory since the F-35s inception at Lockheed! The mishap was not due to maintainers or assemblers on the line! It was an engineering issue from a subcontractor. They fixed the issue! We have produced over 1000 F-35s. We have a lot of smart people who are working 24/7 to make the F-35 better! If it had a 2nd seat, I would strap that F-35 on in a second and make the first flight! These thoughts and opinions are my own. I am proud to say I work at Lockheed! Great content guys! PS 301st FW is the best! I retired from the Reserves in 2020.
An aircraft made by a major manufacturer was partially built by a guy who's job it was to ensure that "the bolt" that held the two halves of the aircraft together (each being built by a different manufacturer) was in the correct position so the rest of the bolts would also be in the correct position when assembled. This included using a jig/template that is really "hard" to install and use. This guy was an old company employee having worked for the company before it was bought out by another company. He was also an older gentleman who's eyesight was not the best. He had his own way of ensuring that the bolt was aligned, so that's how the first batches were built. At some point a squadron had to pull this part of the aircraft apart, and when they went to put it together nothing would align due to the stress that the aircraft was under post mating of the halves plus whatever stresses the aircraft had been subjected to during flight. It took a tiger team from one of the companies to come out to the location and set the plane on jacks/bucs and then to realign the two halves, repair the bolt hole and reinstall the bolt in the proper location. To the old guys credit he did get about 70% of the planes manufactured correctly. Since the guy had worked there so long no one was actually checking his work. After that happened he was reassigned to another part of the assembly process where there was more direct supervision.
Good report Gentlemen. Mover I agree with your assessment about the 311 Skipper but I am worried due to how the MAG treated a Hornet Skipper in a similar situation. His reports of issues about broken jets, low readiness, lack of parts and experienced Aircrew and Maintainers was called a "good update" until there was a MidAir between one of his Hornets and a 130. Then the CO,XO and Ops guys were all dismissed while the MAG CO kept his job. Being a Skipper,XO, Ops MO and CMC/SgtMJ has to nightmare with all of this.
It should be standard procedure for the receiving military unit to send an inspection team to the factory to evaluate before acceptance. Probably also send some inspectors from another unit that already operates the aircraft too, as they should be more familiar with it.
Good day sirs, Great topic. Lockheed has had major problems for a while now. Lockheed is the main contractor for the LCS and F-35. Both programs have had issues. I enjoy the podcast. Keep up the good job.
I was in a Navy squadron that operated C-130's. These C-130's would go through a P&E and then an ISR repair at the depot at Cherry Point. One time we were having fuel contamination issues Turned out that the guys doing wing fuel cell maintenance had used a "Navy mattress" to be comfortable when working on their back sealing rivets. t was left in the fuel cell, It had a rip in the fabric which allowed the foam (as it was breaking down) to be released into the tank. They found it after a couple of days worth of troubleshooting. One time they found a maintenance ladder in a fuel tank.
This is a problem in all aspects of aviation today. I work in corporate aviation and there is a serious shortage of good technical people across the board, from commercial, business, GA, and manufacturers. There is a lot of talk about a pilot shortage, but the issues on the maintenance side are much bigger. Nobody is going into aircraft maintenance anymore. Many of the MROs (major repair overhaul facilities) I work with are offering to pay for schooling and $60k a year is easily possible in the first year of work, but young people today want no part of it. Most of the good techs nowadays are also reaching retirement age. This problem is going to get much worse before getting better.
My Dad as a first year A&P in the mid 80's was making over $30k then. That is over $90k in today's money thanks to inflation! I see job postings all the time for entry-level positions at companies like Collins Aerospace and it's mid $50k salary...chump change compared to what it used to be. Why would anyone get their A&P in today's society when they can go into another tech field, start their own business, and make more...
@mattr6344 $60k first year is not laughable, the average salary first year for someone with a bachelor's degree in America is $58k. People today think that they deserve $100k thier first year of actual work, that just isn't reality. If you think that you can do that fixing lawnmowers more power to you.
The right criticism of communism was that a small and unaccountable group ran all of production for an entire industry or economy. We say capitalism is better because of competition. I agree. But 1 or 2 unaccountable corporations isn’t much better.
The disconnect is upper and mid-management pushing projects to be completed much faster than possible. The routine QC checks which are a persistent part of the assembly line, are not being done, thus tools and material, which would normally be cleaned-up, isn't being done. Tolerance and operational checks are not being done throughout the process. The USMC is not only have to be troubleshooter if something isnt' functioning correctly upon initial receiving but, then having to do maintenance and EVERY operational verification BEFORE it can get to the point of being certified.
Bingo. DEI is literally ruining this Country. The people they are hiring, aren't qualified for the jobs. Nobody cares what color the person was who built the plane they're flying in, as long as they're safe.
People Fail, Systems Succeed. Walter A. Shewhart at Bell Laboratories in the early 1920s. Shewhart is credited with first inventing the concept of controlling manufacturing processes to detect issues before defects happen, but lean manufacturing popularized the notion that defects should be spotted as soon as possible. We adopted these methods for War production during WW2 and Japan adopted it for their industries post war. The manufacturer knows who signed off on these aircraft at each step and these folks all need to be held accountable. The Marine Corps should bill Lockheed for every dollar this cost them to correct and levy a fine on top of it. If Lockheed doesn't fix this, the contract should be cancelled. This entire "Sole Source" crap doesn't save money at all. BTW the Air Force F-35 fleet has a 29% readiness factor. Maybe the Air Force should just cancel the remaining contract and buy F-15EX fighters instead as they work and will be available when needed.
The squadron in question operates F-35C not F-35B. Gonky seemed to get mixed up as well mentioning not knowing how many of the USMC variants had been built but this is about the USN variant which the USMC are getting about 60 to operate off super carriers.
Maybe the problem isn’t necessary oversight, but a lack of dependable vendors to compete for big money contracts that keep quality and performance more competitive.
2:57 glad that you commented about Boeing coming through with the Rhino deliveries back in the day. So much constant negativity nowadays that can make us lose sight that overall we're part of a system that wants to, and had done good.
This is NOT a new problem, it's just getting more headlines right now. This is always been a 'thing' when we would get aircraft from other agencies like Depot or the factory. As long as you have humans working on and building aircraft it's going to be an issue that needs oversight. When the government leans in and 'Makes You Do The Right Thing' there's more emphasis on QUALITY and whenever you have government leaning back and letting the companies do what they want there's more emphasis on quickly getting product out for greater PROFIT.
As soon as I hear about Marines and f-35, I think of the F-35B STOVL variant. In this case with VMFA-311 I would have been incorrect as they are a F-35C CATOBAR variant squadron.. F-35A=AirForce, f-35B Marines, f-35C Marines/Navy variant.
Rosie the Riveters who work directly on the production line may have a lot of pride in what they do, but that does NOT mean they have enough control over what they do. If work is not being checked and double checked because of management directives, Rosie's pride in her work is misdirected.
A whole squadron of lemons? Let's hope LockMart doesn't merge with Boeing. Hopefully, other commanders will speak up if they encounter the same problems.
It was a mistake to allow this level of consolidation in the industry. Boeing and LockMart are now too big to fail and have created regulatory capture issues.
My aunt worked for McDonald Douglas in their space program down in Houston and then later did simulator work in St. Louis and even now Boeing St. Louis = McDonald Douglas and Boeing Seattle = big plane Boeing. Honestly the company should undo the merger as according to family members (who worked there) and many of my friends who are engineers at Boeing in St. Louis there was and is no good reason for the two to be one company.
I think the problem is trying to do too much all at once instead of building it and the systems in stages, South Korea is building a new jet, but they are going to build the upgrades in stages not all at once like the F35.
There's a video of a brand new F-4 "Rhino" taking off during its first flight from the factory. All of a sudden it pitches up, canopies come off and 2 seats pop out, the aircraft had about 7-8 seconds of flight time. Weird things can occur on assembly/manufacturing lines when humans are involved. oops, i dropped a plastic tool and I can't reach it. No matter, they'll catch it in Quality Assurance, on to the next jet. Then down the line, QA doesn't catch it and it ends up out in the field. I've actually seen Union reps purposefully damage, or set up a scenario where certain equipment damages itself upon startup, just so that the production line stops thus requiring the Maintenance dept. and their fleet of bicycles to descend on the broken equipment to get it working again. The rationale was that they didn't want to work themselves out of a job. Sure the f-35 is new to a lot of end users, but some of these workers have been building f-35 for years now. the daily grind can indeed wear away at "pride of work".
Also culture. Take pride in their work. They build then most badazz man made machines to have ever existed. Like any unit of company, if the culture slacks, the slacking is a contagium.
Nice vid fellas. Question I heard that Stealth Aircraft can be 'seen' when using 'low' radar - not sure if I used the right terminology. For example the S-400 uses both a 'high' radar and a 'low' radar. Is this true and if this is possible can the aircraft be locked on and the missile able to track it?
Mover, I might disagree that the workers have pride in their work, they will not if mgmt. knowingly is cutting corners. Then it's 'I'm only here for the paycheck" mentality.
I don't know if Lockheed Martin has the same Issue, but Boeing has a awful working mentality. The workplace feels oppressive (way more than many other jobs I've had) and everyone just wants to get home and they don't care how. We not only raise people more than we used to to do the bare minimum, but we PAY them the bare minimum too. Sure they get 20-27/hr but they are building airliners! Back in the days of B-29s pay was super competitive and probably around $40 an hour for a modern worker. Meaning the applications are competitive, meaning the workers were there to work!
Union workers at their finest! Reminds me back when the B1's were first being adopted and every single one FOD'ed out every engine because of all the fastener bits (mostly Hi-Loc drive nuts) the workers who didn't give a shit left in the engine nacelles. I worked with an engineer who designed a rig and program that would hold the nacelle and tilt/rotate and spin it to work all of the debris out of them. He said they sounded like a Mexican maraca when they first started being turned and buckets of crap came out of them. Really sad that people don't have more pride in their work.
@@recoilrob324 You mentioned the B-1, not that it matters. What’s there to explain? The logic you’re using. Because using your using I could say Gonky got to fly gripe free Super Hornets because union workers built them. The reality is, if a company is having serious quality issues you can trace those problems to company culture and/or morale. And you can directly trace those issues straight to the leadership.
It's not just LM n Boeing the other large US Mil aircraft producer is having quality problems, this happens when you put accountants in charge "profit is first..."
This is nothing new. There were problems with legacy Hornets during initial introduction as well. Also had numerous replacements of main landing gear trunions, ECS heat exchangers and F404 engines needing removal for engine case fires.
how did metal pieces get into jet fuel ? Are the internal fuel tanks having dangling metal parts not fasten ? Will those issues affect F35 to be delivered to Canadian Airforce ?
This might be a silly question, but since those jets were replacing the old harriers, shouldnt they be F-35B instead of C variants? I might be missing something obvious here, but this really confused me here ^^
What needs to happen is that the MIlitary Industrial Complex needs new blood. Lockheed and Boeing have gotten fat on America's dime since we let the military industrial base consolidate after the fall of the USSR. We went from like 50 different companies making American weapons systems to 5.
They have a monopoly and been bribing our politicians for decades.
I disagree. Lockheed and boeing just modernized did the same thing every American company that didn't close their doors or get bought. American workers know how to make quality products. American engineers know how to design them. American CEOs, the winners, do not give a crap about anything but their own greed. Every American industry needs new blood. I don't want to get sucked out the side of a 737, I don't want our marine airmen dying in it defective f-35, and I don't want to walk down main Street and see that everything's closed and there's nothing left but a Walmart. It's all the same thing
Yeah it would be nice to have you in the recruiting depo alls i got was "We don't give a shit" people who step up and go to the recruiting stations clearly aren't going there to waste time. But the military just naturally like to do that waste "allot" of time.
As a former LM employee, all I can tell you is that you are correct in assuming the QC has plummeted, all in order to meet the production schedules. I keep in touch with current employees and trust me, they don't care about the employees, so why would they care about the quality. They only care about getting it delivered.
Profit over quality is a major problem.
we need veterans to be CEOs
People leaving tools behind sounds like disgruntled employees. Maybe they aren't paying them enough and their passion for the job has left the chat.
It's happening in video game industries, I can tell you that.
I work at Lockheed on the flight line. I can tell you without a doubt that the men and women I work with take their jobs very seriously! Are we perfect? No. Is perfection our goal? Yes. It is easy to armchair quarterback the Lockheed’s and Boeings. Our customer is the government. The government puts requirements built in or intentionally left out of parts, and processes to save themselves money. We also have accountants at Lockheed that keep tract of these requirements. If it saves Lockheed money then by all means give the customer what they want. What they want maybe detrimental to the jet, but not in a catastrophic way. Do these Lochheed accountants want a successful quality jet? Of course! Does the government want a perfect jet? Of course! People also forget that the F-35 is the first iteration of a 5th generation aircraft. Some of the systems on the F-35 weren’t even invented yet, or perfected yet. It was decided by Uncle Sam and Lockheed to develop as we were building the jet. They decided this to save money. We have had 1 class one mishap at the factory since the F-35s inception at Lockheed! The mishap was not due to maintainers or assemblers on the line! It was an engineering issue from a subcontractor. They fixed the issue! We have produced over 1000 F-35s. We have a lot of smart people who are working 24/7 to make the F-35 better! If it had a 2nd seat, I would strap that F-35 on in a second and make the first flight! These thoughts and opinions are my own. I am proud to say I work at Lockheed! Great content guys! PS 301st FW is the best! I retired from the Reserves in 2020.
Thanks for the comment!! Keep up the good work!
Let's not forget that all the higher level executives are coming out of Ivy League schools and we know how great they are.
We apparently don’t know how great they, that’s why they never stop telling us……
And Judges too... right out of college
they don't know a jet from a hole in the wall but they all know their pronouns
An aircraft made by a major manufacturer was partially built by a guy who's job it was to ensure that "the bolt" that held the two halves of the aircraft together (each being built by a different manufacturer) was in the correct position so the rest of the bolts would also be in the correct position when assembled. This included using a jig/template that is really "hard" to install and use. This guy was an old company employee having worked for the company before it was bought out by another company. He was also an older gentleman who's eyesight was not the best. He had his own way of ensuring that the bolt was aligned, so that's how the first batches were built. At some point a squadron had to pull this part of the aircraft apart, and when they went to put it together nothing would align due to the stress that the aircraft was under post mating of the halves plus whatever stresses the aircraft had been subjected to during flight. It took a tiger team from one of the companies to come out to the location and set the plane on jacks/bucs and then to realign the two halves, repair the bolt hole and reinstall the bolt in the proper location. To the old guys credit he did get about 70% of the planes manufactured correctly. Since the guy had worked there so long no one was actually checking his work. After that happened he was reassigned to another part of the assembly process where there was more direct supervision.
Nothing is worse than being in a flying squadron that can't fly.
Sounds about right.
No, worse is being the people left undefended because a squadron can't do their jobs.
Good report Gentlemen. Mover I agree with your assessment about the 311 Skipper but I am worried due to how the MAG treated a Hornet Skipper in a similar situation. His reports of issues about broken jets, low readiness, lack of parts and experienced Aircrew and Maintainers was called a "good update" until there was a MidAir between one of his Hornets and a 130. Then the CO,XO and Ops guys were all dismissed while the MAG CO kept his job. Being a Skipper,XO, Ops MO and CMC/SgtMJ has to nightmare with all of this.
It should be standard procedure for the receiving military unit to send an inspection team to the factory to evaluate before acceptance. Probably also send some inspectors from another unit that already operates the aircraft too, as they should be more familiar with it.
Good day sirs,
Great topic. Lockheed has had major problems for a while now. Lockheed is the main contractor for the LCS and F-35. Both programs have had issues. I enjoy the podcast. Keep up the good job.
I was in a Navy squadron that operated C-130's. These C-130's would go through a P&E and then an ISR repair at the depot at Cherry Point. One time we were having fuel contamination issues Turned out that the guys doing wing fuel cell maintenance had used a "Navy mattress" to be comfortable when working on their back sealing rivets. t was left in the fuel cell, It had a rip in the fabric which allowed the foam (as it was breaking down) to be released into the tank. They found it after a couple of days worth of troubleshooting. One time they found a maintenance ladder in a fuel tank.
This unit is receiving brand new F-35C's and all 5 in this delivery had these issues.
This is a problem in all aspects of aviation today. I work in corporate aviation and there is a serious shortage of good technical people across the board, from commercial, business, GA, and manufacturers. There is a lot of talk about a pilot shortage, but the issues on the maintenance side are much bigger. Nobody is going into aircraft maintenance anymore. Many of the MROs (major repair overhaul facilities) I work with are offering to pay for schooling and $60k a year is easily possible in the first year of work, but young people today want no part of it. Most of the good techs nowadays are also reaching retirement age. This problem is going to get much worse before getting better.
I'm a good tech
60k is laughable for working on aircraft. I made more working on lawnmowers 😂.
@@mattr6344 yeah they need to step up their money game
My Dad as a first year A&P in the mid 80's was making over $30k then. That is over $90k in today's money thanks to inflation! I see job postings all the time for entry-level positions at companies like Collins Aerospace and it's mid $50k salary...chump change compared to what it used to be. Why would anyone get their A&P in today's society when they can go into another tech field, start their own business, and make more...
@mattr6344 $60k first year is not laughable, the average salary first year for someone with a bachelor's degree in America is $58k. People today think that they deserve $100k thier first year of actual work, that just isn't reality. If you think that you can do that fixing lawnmowers more power to you.
The right criticism of communism was that a small and unaccountable group ran all of production for an entire industry or economy.
We say capitalism is better because of competition. I agree.
But 1 or 2 unaccountable corporations isn’t much better.
The disconnect is upper and mid-management pushing projects to be completed much faster than possible. The routine QC checks which are a persistent part of the assembly line, are not being done, thus tools and material, which would normally be cleaned-up, isn't being done. Tolerance and operational checks are not being done throughout the process. The USMC is not only have to be troubleshooter if something isnt' functioning correctly upon initial receiving but, then having to do maintenance and EVERY operational verification BEFORE it can get to the point of being certified.
dei, outsourcing, monopolies,
Bingo. DEI is literally ruining this Country. The people they are hiring, aren't qualified for the jobs. Nobody cares what color the person was who built the plane they're flying in, as long as they're safe.
People Fail, Systems Succeed. Walter A. Shewhart at Bell Laboratories in the early 1920s. Shewhart is credited with first inventing the concept of controlling manufacturing processes to detect issues before defects happen, but lean manufacturing popularized the notion that defects should be spotted as soon as possible. We adopted these methods for War production during WW2 and Japan adopted it for their industries post war. The manufacturer knows who signed off on these aircraft at each step and these folks all need to be held accountable. The Marine Corps should bill Lockheed for every dollar this cost them to correct and levy a fine on top of it. If Lockheed doesn't fix this, the contract should be cancelled. This entire "Sole Source" crap doesn't save money at all. BTW the Air Force F-35 fleet has a 29% readiness factor. Maybe the Air Force should just cancel the remaining contract and buy F-15EX fighters instead as they work and will be available when needed.
Let's keep this in perspective. Boeing's issues are in the Commercial division, Boeing STL is the Military division
Normal days for the F-35B assembly line to have problems at times like this. Why not.
The squadron in question operates F-35C not F-35B.
Gonky seemed to get mixed up as well mentioning not knowing how many of the USMC variants had been built but this is about the USN variant which the USMC are getting about 60 to operate off super carriers.
@@ajback2917 Which will bring more problems which more budget funding will be needed to re-operate the squadron(and other squadrons also).
Maybe the problem isn’t necessary oversight, but a lack of dependable vendors to compete for big money contracts that keep quality and performance more competitive.
2:57 glad that you commented about Boeing coming through with the Rhino deliveries back in the day. So much constant negativity nowadays that can make us lose sight that overall we're part of a system that wants to, and had done good.
This is NOT a new problem, it's just getting more headlines right now. This is always been a 'thing' when we would get aircraft from other agencies like Depot or the factory. As long as you have humans working on and building aircraft it's going to be an issue that needs oversight. When the government leans in and 'Makes You Do The Right Thing' there's more emphasis on QUALITY and whenever you have government leaning back and letting the companies do what they want there's more emphasis on quickly getting product out for greater PROFIT.
As soon as I hear about Marines and f-35, I think of the F-35B STOVL variant. In this case with VMFA-311 I would have been incorrect as they are a F-35C CATOBAR variant squadron.. F-35A=AirForce, f-35B Marines, f-35C Marines/Navy variant.
Mover and Gonky for President...or at least SecAF. Doug as Chief of Staff.👍🇺🇸🫡
We've had worse.
Rosie the Riveters who work directly on the production line may have a lot of pride in what they do, but that does NOT mean they have enough control over what they do. If work is not being checked and double checked because of management directives, Rosie's pride in her work is misdirected.
A whole squadron of lemons? Let's hope LockMart doesn't merge with Boeing. Hopefully, other commanders will speak up if they encounter the same problems.
I thought they already merged together? And that boeing and lockheed work in conjunction with one another
It was a mistake to allow this level of consolidation in the industry. Boeing and LockMart are now too big to fail and have created regulatory capture issues.
My aunt worked for McDonald Douglas in their space program down in Houston and then later did simulator work in St. Louis and even now Boeing St. Louis = McDonald Douglas and Boeing Seattle = big plane Boeing. Honestly the company should undo the merger as according to family members (who worked there) and many of my friends who are engineers at Boeing in St. Louis there was and is no good reason for the two to be one company.
I think the problem is trying to do too much all at once instead of building it and the systems in stages, South Korea is building a new jet, but they are going to build the upgrades in stages not all at once like the F35.
There's a video of a brand new F-4 "Rhino" taking off during its first flight from the factory. All of a sudden it pitches up, canopies come off and 2 seats pop out, the aircraft had about 7-8 seconds of flight time.
Weird things can occur on assembly/manufacturing lines when humans are involved. oops, i dropped a plastic tool and I can't reach it. No matter, they'll catch it in Quality Assurance, on to the next jet. Then down the line, QA doesn't catch it and it ends up out in the field.
I've actually seen Union reps purposefully damage, or set up a scenario where certain equipment damages itself upon startup, just so that the production line stops thus requiring the Maintenance dept. and their fleet of bicycles to descend on the broken equipment to get it working again. The rationale was that they didn't want to work themselves out of a job.
Sure the f-35 is new to a lot of end users, but some of these workers have been building f-35 for years now. the daily grind can indeed wear away at "pride of work".
Found out today that only 29 % of f 35 are mission capable what a joke 🤣
Also culture. Take pride in their work. They build then most badazz man made machines to have ever existed. Like any unit of company, if the culture slacks, the slacking is a contagium.
listening to the recent F-35 news as a Canadian taxpayer
If the military has to tear down and rebuild every plane than why pay for assembly. Just order the parts and build them yourselves.
Nice vid fellas. Question I heard that Stealth Aircraft can be 'seen' when using 'low' radar - not sure if I used the right terminology. For example the S-400 uses both a 'high' radar and a 'low' radar. Is this true and if this is possible can the aircraft be locked on and the missile able to track it?
Are we sure Lockheed didn’t subcontract assembly to Boeing?
Complain, complain, complain. At least it's a step up over the harrier.
Algorithmic engagement comment.
The f35 sits at a 27% readiness rate and is turning out to be the worst mistake in US history.
Let me guess it can be fixed by 3 new layers of increased billing?
Mover, I might disagree that the workers have pride in their work, they will not if mgmt. knowingly is cutting corners. Then it's 'I'm only here for the paycheck" mentality.
Is Lockheed Martin hiring from Boeing. Sounds like Boeing issues are starting to bleed over. DEI issues and subbing parts.
I don't know if Lockheed Martin has the same Issue, but Boeing has a awful working mentality. The workplace feels oppressive (way more than many other jobs I've had) and everyone just wants to get home and they don't care how. We not only raise people more than we used to to do the bare minimum, but we PAY them the bare minimum too. Sure they get 20-27/hr but they are building airliners! Back in the days of B-29s pay was super competitive and probably around $40 an hour for a modern worker. Meaning the applications are competitive, meaning the workers were there to work!
DEI in action
The question is are they hiring the best, or just those that fill certain quotas?
If you think that’s the pr let then you havn’t been paying attention.
Union workers at their finest! Reminds me back when the B1's were first being adopted and every single one FOD'ed out every engine because of all the fastener bits (mostly Hi-Loc drive nuts) the workers who didn't give a shit left in the engine nacelles. I worked with an engineer who designed a rig and program that would hold the nacelle and tilt/rotate and spin it to work all of the debris out of them. He said they sounded like a Mexican maraca when they first started being turned and buckets of crap came out of them. Really sad that people don't have more pride in their work.
@@recoilrob324 And Boeing’s 787 plant in SC is non-union. The Super Hornet line at STL is union. Care to explain that?
@@gram8821 What is there to explain? I mentioned the B2 production which I believe was a Union shop...was it not?
@@recoilrob324 You mentioned the B-1, not that it matters. What’s there to explain? The logic you’re using. Because using your using I could say Gonky got to fly gripe free Super Hornets because union workers built them. The reality is, if a company is having serious quality issues you can trace those problems to company culture and/or morale. And you can directly trace those issues straight to the leadership.
It's not just LM n Boeing the other large US Mil aircraft producer is having quality problems, this happens when you put accountants in charge "profit is first..."
This is nothing new. There were problems with legacy Hornets during initial introduction as well. Also had numerous replacements of main landing gear trunions, ECS heat exchangers and F404 engines needing removal for engine case fires.
how did metal pieces get into jet fuel ? Are the internal fuel tanks having dangling metal parts not fasten ? Will those issues affect F35 to be delivered to Canadian Airforce ?
Same way fuel gets into the fuel tank
Don’t you think it happens because of new producers join after Turkey’s leave the program?
I am sure this CO will be removed from command for "lack of confidence" because he dare point out facts on defective $90 Million Dollar Jets.
DCMA falling on their faces again. Also, maybe Boeing and LM need to have their AS9100 accreditation revoked until they fix these problems.
Boeing is Chinese now days
Are these new F35s the tech-refresh 3 versions?
No
FOD
This might be a silly question, but since those jets were replacing the old harriers, shouldnt they be F-35B instead of C variants? I might be missing something obvious here, but this really confused me here ^^
They are also replacing legacy Hornets that the Marines flew off of the big carriers.