Politics before performance?

Powering Australia’s next fighter

In June 2014 an F-35A Joint Strike Fighter suffered a catastrophic fire in its F135 engine, fortunately before the aircraft had taken off. Almost a year later the engine manufacturer, Pratt & Whitney, is still working on a fix with Lockheed Martin, the US Department of Defense, the US Air Force, Navy and Marines, and other interested parties, including the RAAF, which has 72 F-35As on order.

Because the F-35 has pushed technological boundaries, many of the difficulties that have had to be overcome were only to be expected. However, that justification might not apply so readily to its powerplant, the development of which many commentators believe has been unduly affected by political interference.