The famous flop is in the news again

The US Department of Defence grounded its global fleet of F-35 stealth fighters on Thursday as a result of the first-ever crash of the costliest plane in history.

A Marine Corps F-35B was completely destroyed in a crash during training in South Carolina on September 28. The pilot safely ejected.

According to Joe DellaVedova, a spokesperson for the F-35 programme, the US and its international partners - including the UK and Israel - have temporarily suspended F-35 flight operations for a fleet-wide inspection of a fuel tube within the aircraft engine.

  alJazeera

Now there's a job with no upside.

F-35B?  I must have missed the scrapping altogether of the F-35A.

The South Carolina crash came only one day after the US military first used the F-35 in combat, with Marine Corps fighters hitting Taliban targets in Afghanistan.

[...]

On Wednesday, Defense News reported that Secretary of Defense James Mattis had ordered the Air Force and Navy to make 80 percent of the fleet of key fighters, including the F-35, mission capable within a year.

The order sent ripples through the halls of the Pentagon, where officials have long bemoaned the general lack of readiness for key equipment.

How long have we been reading failure stories about this huge boondoggle?

Launched in the early 1990s, the F-35 programme is considered the most expensive weapons system in US history, with an estimated cost of some $400bn.

[...]

Once servicing and maintenance costs for the F-35 are factored in over the aircraft's lifespan through 2070, overall programme costs are expected to rise to $1.5tr.

Proponents tout the F-35's radar-dodging stealth technology, supersonic speeds, close air support capabilities, airborne agility and a massive array of sensors giving pilots unparalleled access to information.

Yes, His Lardship thinks they're invisible.

But the programme has faced numerous delays, cost overruns and setbacks, including a mysterious engine fire in 2014 that led commanders to temporarily ground the planes.

So far, the US military has taken delivery of 245 F-35s, most of them to the Air Force.

And Lockheed Martin has taken delivery of our treasury.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.