The latest look at the F-35 does not paint a pretty picture. While it doesn't identify any show-stoppers, it does identify a raft of design and programmatic problems. Among the most worrying: the advanced helmet doesn't work as it should and no one has come up with answers to its problems, which were identified about a year ago. Problems with the highly advanced helmet seem to ripple through various aspects of the plane's technical and operational performance; the F-35C's tail hook doesn't work properly and the plane can't perform carrier landings right now (perhaps the Marines are chuckling over that one...); the plane's air warfare capabilities suffer from "..unsatisfactory progress and the likelihood of severe operational impacts for survivability, lethality, air vehicle performance, and employment;"



The large section on concurrency risk offers some interesting details, but AOL Defense readers already know the conclusions reached by the program about this from Richard Whittle's interview with Vice Adm. David Venlet.

All this led a member of our Board of Contributors, Winslow Wheeler, to conclude: "The new revelations are numerous and significant enough to call into question whether F-35 production should be suspended--if not terminated--even in the minds of today's senior managers in the Pentagon.." Winslow, of course, is a defense analyst at the Center for Defense Information.

The report was posted by the Project on Government Alternatives (POGO.) My colleague, Tony Capaccio at Bloomberg, was the first to report the review's findings.