{"id":34492,"date":"2013-02-23T13:26:17","date_gmt":"2013-02-23T11:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/?p=34492"},"modified":"2013-02-23T13:26:17","modified_gmt":"2013-02-23T11:26:17","slug":"pentagon-new-fighter-jet-on-the-ground-now-with-huge-problems-us-news-34492","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/pentagon-new-fighter-jet-on-the-ground-now-with-huge-problems-us-news-34492\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon new fighter jet on the ground now with huge problems \/ US News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/h1>\n

The Pentagon has grounded the US military’s entire fleet of F-35 fighter jets after discovering a cracked engine turbine blade in one plane.<\/h1>\n

The Pentagon has halted flights onboard its fleet of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets, causing yet another setback for the US Defense Department\u2019s most expensive weapons program.<\/p>\n

Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of the aircraft and the largest defense contractor in the world, confirmed on Friday that the entire American arsenal of F-35s have been grounded after a routine inspection on a test plane at Edwards Air Force Base in California turned up cracked turbine blade.<\/p>\n

The problem was discovered during what the Pentagon called a routine inspection of an F-35A\u00a0Lightning II, the US Air Force’s version of the new plane.<\/p>\n

The US Navy and the US Marine Corps are buying other versions of the F-35, which is intended to replace older fighter jets like the Air Force’s\u00a0F-16 and the Navy and Marine Corps’\u00a0F\/A-18.<\/p>\n

All versions – a total of 51 planes – were grounded on Friday pending an investigation.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon said it was too early to know the full impact of the newly discovered problem.<\/p>\n

It said: “On February 19, 2013, a routine engine inspection revealed a crack on a low pressure turbine blade of an F135 engine installed in a CTOL test aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.<\/p>\n

“Engineering teams are shipping the turbine blade to Pratt & Whitney\u2019s Engine Facility in Middletown, CT, to conduct a thorough evaluation and root cause analysis.<\/p>\n

“It is too early to know the fleet-wide impact of this finding, however as a precautionary measure, all F-35 flight operations have been suspended until the investigation is complete and the cause of the blade crack is fully understood.<\/p>\n

“The F-35 Joint Program Office is working closely with Pratt & Whitney and Lockheed Martin at all F-35 locations to assess the integrity of the engine, and to return the fleet safely to flight as soon as possible.”<\/p>\n

The F-35 is the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons programme, with a total estimated cost of nearly $400bn (\u00a3262bn).<\/p>\n

The Pentagon has planned to buy more than 2,400 F-35s, but some members of Congress are hesitant due to the hefty price tag.<\/p>\n

The UK has ordered 48 F-35s to fly off the Royal Navy’s new Queen Elizabeth carrier once it is built in 2018. Britain has also invested in the development of the jet.<\/p>\nError, group does not exist! Check your syntax! (ID: 12)<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pentagon has grounded the US military’s entire fleet of F-35 fighter jets after discovering a cracked engine turbine blade in one plane.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":702,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,80,63,1,118,14],"tags":[11500,46561,14363,20080,10035,46557,46559,46560,37672,43533,46556,46558,2057,6022,43182],"class_list":["post-34492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-america","category-breaking-news","category-daily","category-general","category-hot","category-world","tag-california","tag-edwards-air-force-base","tag-f-35-fighter-jet","tag-f-35-joint-strike-fighter-lightning-ii","tag-military","tag-new-fighter-jet","tag-new-fighter-jet-on-the-ground","tag-new-jet-huge-problems","tag-pentagon","tag-planes","tag-us-defence-department","tag-us-new-fighter-jet","tag-usa","tag-us","tag-weapons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/702"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34492\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}