The Marines have ordered a VTOL variant for close-air support. This function is rather critical to the Marines who get the nastiest big assignments that usually involve fighting up close and personal with the bad guys. If they are calling in air support, they want the ordinance put on the bad guys and not themselves. The problem: the new small smart bomb designed for the F-35 weapons bay doesn't fit and the software to operate it isn't ready and won't be ready until 2022. The aircraft (fingers crossed) is supposed to be operational in 2018. Well, I guess for 4 years the F-35 will have to buzz enemy lines and make them really, really scared. Oh, did I mention that the F-35 is stealthy. That will really help in the ground support mission. Perhaps it's invisible and makes no noise. Great strategy. Great execution.
In the meantime, the Air Force is doing it's best to get rid of a really terrific close-support aircraft, the A-10 Warthog. Designed to specifically fill this role and based on experience from the Vietnam War, the Warthog has been effectively supporting infantry for decades. It also brings its pilots home because the pilot is encased in a titanium "bathtub" and the aircraft has multiple redundant systems to take a licking from ground fire and keep on ticking. But no ..... we can't have a plane that is simply supremely effective if ugly - we have to have a shiny new model that doesn't do the job and if it takes a hit from a rifle round is probably going to crash and burn with the loss of the pilot and a $116M aircraft.
As I said before, great strategy; great execution. Our combat people in all services, all branches, deserve the best gear possible before they go against bad guys of whatever stripe. This is not it.
thediplomat.com/2015/03/oops-us-close-air-support-bomb-doesnt-fit-on-the-f35/
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