A US F-35A has carried out a pair of airstrikes against targets inside northern Iraq. They say the strikes were against ISIS, claiming to have hit a tunnel network and a weapons cache.
This marks the first time the F-35A has been used in combat. This was
widely expected, with the jets deployed into the region on April 15, and
officials hotly anticipating the first use of them.
The F-35 program has been wildly expensive, and the Pentagon are eager
to start putting them into the field, where it can stop being an
overpriced prototype and start being an overpriced vehicle in active
combat.
Recent estimates are that the F-35 and its variants will cost
conservatively $1 trillion over their lifetime for the Pentagon. Some
estimates are even projecting this to go to $1.5 trillion, which seems
reasonable given how many previous estimates have proven far below the
reality of the matter.
US Carries Out First Airstrikes With F-35 in Iraq
Massively expensive warplane carries out first strikes ever
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
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