The Pentagon has given the green light to equip the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter with thermonuclear weapons, a military spokesman told Breaking Defense. The latest addition to the US fighter fleet, the F-35 has faced a long line of technical issues and cost overruns.
In comments to the outlet on Friday, F-35 Joint Program Office spokesman Russ Goemaere confirmed that the plane was certified to carry the B61-12 thermonuclear gravity bomb last October, making it the first dual-capable stealth jet in service.
“The F-35A achieved Nuclear Certification ahead of schedule, providing US and NATO with a critical capability that supports US extended deterrence commitments earlier than anticipated,” the spokesman said.
The decision currently applies only to the Air Force’s F-35A variant, with the Marine Corps and Navy models still restricted to conventional munitions.
The main hydrogen bomb in the US arsenal, the original B61 gravity bomb was designed at the height of Cold War nuclear brinkmanship and has been assigned to a variety of other bombers. While around 100 older models of the bomb were still deployed at US bases in several NATO states as of last year, the F-35 is only authorized to carry the latest B61-12 variant, which was set to arrive in Europe in late 2022.
The largest B61 variant carries a warhead with a maximum yield of 340 kilotons, capable of annihilating a city the size of Washington, DC and leveling much of its surrounding suburbs.
Though it was designed to replace older US fighters and serve as a multi-role aircraft, the F-35 has been plagued by a series of design flaws since its introduction into the air fleet. Despite years of upgrades, a Pentagon review published in January found that the “operational suitability” of the plane still remained “below service expectations and requirements,” also reporting “critical failures” in several F-35 components.
A recent Government Accountability Office report also criticized significant cost overruns and production delays for the warplane, noting that the price for F-35 upgrades had exceeded initial estimates by billions. Dubbing the jet the Pentagon’s “most expensive weapon system program,” the office said total costs to buy, operate and sustain the F-35 would ultimately exceed $1.7 trillion.
Will Porter is assistant news editor at the Libertarian Institute. Find more of his work at Consortium News and ZeroHedge.
Add it to the list of NATO nuclear weapons capable airplanes. There is around 25 currently active NATO aircraft that have the two electronic boxes need to make a plane nuclear capable. One monitors and arms the bomb. The other give the pilot the go to drop the bomb.
Gee, that gives me goose bumps all over.
It should.
Cause those aren’t paper fighters like the Russians.
They are truly advanced.
Oh now i can be assured because of your description of “truly”; just like the original cost of the turkey F-35s.
I was worried enough about flying in jumbo Boeing jets (door panels, wheels falling off, motors catching fire, etc) but offcourse that’s trivial to worrying about benighted F-35’s packing hydrogen bombs. BIG bombs. Love the associated graphics showing damage radius for most significant US cities. Suppose any politician or MIC people who live in these cities will look and be aghast at this? Naw. Probably dismiss.
If you are worried about a modern nuclear bomb detonating in a crash don’t. Unless armed, they are not going to explode. The fire ball of a crash will destroyed the weapon. Of course you will sill have a messy clean up to do.
We can always hope that the nukes will work as well as the planes carrying them.
Funny the plane has numerous problems that need to be fixed first…!
Heavy, not very maneuverable and slow compare to other fighters. These things will act as nuclear kamikaze over cities.
The F-35 is nearly un-detectable by today’s radar. Its radar cross sectional area is about the size of a golf ball. If needed, the F-35 will get to its target, bomb it and return.
…and then prepare to kiss your ass goodbye in retaliatory nuclear strikes.
True, but that nothing to do with Analyzer claim the F-35 are built like Kamikaze planes. The Kamikaze tactics was the used because Japanese pilots had little training and their planes were junk compared to the US Navy planes.
You give too much credit to U.S. hardware.
You don’t give enough credit to USA aircraft. The US build warplanes have dominate the air since 1944.
For those worried about payload limits, all our F-35s can still drop “Freedom and Democracy” smart bombs on any poor, starving country in the world.
Dumocracy?….