The US military’s F-35 Lightning II stealth aircraft have a problem with spare parts, and it’s keeping the planes out of the sky, according to a new report by a government watchdog. "F-35 aircraft were unable to fly nearly 30% of the May-November 2018 time period due to spare parts shortages," according to an April report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). [...]

The contract for Turkey to procure Russian air defence systems has been vehemently opposed by Washington, who is trying to convince Ankara to ditch it threatening the country with sanctions and freezing deliveries of F-35 fighters. [...]

The Chinese military is winning the conventional missile arms race, particularly for anti-ship missiles, and US commanders are frantically trying to come up with alternative strategies before US aircraft carriers become obsolete. [...]

In March, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated Ankara’s commitment to its deal with Russia on the purchase of S-400 missile systems, adding that Turkey may subsequently look into buying S-500 systems. [...]

The United States on Monday announced its decision to halt shipments of F-35-related equipment due to Ankara's plans to purchase Russia's S-400 missile defence system. Turkey, a US-NATO ally, has been planning to purchase 100 F-35 fighter jets from the US. Sputnik discussed this with Oliver Steward, a political strategist from the UK. [...]

US President Donald Trump, who has been relentlessly bashing everything linked to what he sees as ‘socialism,’ is himself no stranger to using socialist principles to support the US arms industry, Tulsi Gabbard has claimed. [...]

The US Department of Defence recently opened an investigation about reports that acting Defence Secretary Patrick Shanahan has been favouring Boeing, where he worked for more than three decades, at the expense of competitors. [...]

Adding to the pile of flaws and setbacks plaguing the F-35 joint strike fighter, a new report by the Pentagon reveals that jet's life span is nearly four times shorter than expected and the accuracy of its guns is "unacceptable." [...]

Donald Trump's official rejection of the role of a global "policeman" could be called the most important event of the outgoing year, Sputnik contributor Ivan Danilov writes, stressing that the cracks in the foundations of American hegemony have already become too visible. [...]

The testy slap-down by US President Donald Trump to the idea of a European army was telling. Any notion of the Europeans stepping away from American "protection" would be anathema to Washington. That's because American power is not about "protecting" Europe. That's just the vainglorious, propaganda mythology. [...]

Earlier reports suggested that the deal between Moscow and Jakarta could fall under the US Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), despite attempts to secure a waiver for Indonesia. [...]

US penalties against Saudi Arabia over the alleged murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi may never be implemented. But just in case, the oil-rich kingdom has threatened to hit back using several effective weapons. Washington pledged ‘severe punishment’ if the Saudis ordered the killing of Khashoggi, a Saudi-born journalist, who disappeared nearly two weeks ago shortly after he e [...]

In a recent cybersecurity test aimed at determining the resiliency of major weapons systems developed by the Pentagon, “testers playing the role of adversary were able to take control of systems relatively easily and operate largely undetected,” according to a government watchdog. [...]

New Avangard hypersonic glider warheads are just months away from entering military service, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, adding that Russia is the first in the world to develop the breakthrough technology. A hypersonic glider is a type of projectile that can fly and maneuver in the upper atmosphere at speeds of over Mach 5. [...]

As the entire F-35 fleet was yet again grounded for technical inspections, in the wake of its first crash in September. RT looks at the abject history and prospects of the most expensive Pentagon program in history. Over $300 billion has been spent on the project to create a state-of-the-art fifth-generation multi-role fighter since 1992, with the eventual cost likely to easily cross the trillion [...]

The first time an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter crashed was on September 28, 2018, and the US grounded its entire F-35 fleet to assess and remedy the problem. The failure highlights far greater problems in the procurement and production process responsible for both the high cost and low performance of the plane. [...]

The entire fleet of F-35 fighter jets has been grounded to inspect the aircraft for suspected faulty fuel tubes, the US military said. The decision comes in the wake of a Marine Corps’ F-35B crash in South Carolina last month. [...]

US Navy aircraft carrier deployment rates around the world are at their lowest point in 25 years, USNI News recently reported, as the service copes with maintenance costs that have accrued over the 17-year War on Terror. Just 15 percent of the Navy's carriers have been operationally deployed at a given point in 2018, USNI News calculated in a recent analysis. [...]

Senior US Air Force leaders said this week 74 new squadrons and some 40,000 personnel are needed to address what they called future threats. When asked by lawmakers,"What do you need to execute the National Defense Strategy," US Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said Monday that the service will need a lot more money, without diving into specifics. [...]

The latest technical glitch has delivered additional setbacks to the Pentagon's most prized fifth-generation fighter jet. Military experts have been left scratching their helmets trying to figure out a viable solution to the problem, but options remain limited. [...]

The Pentagon estimates that the cost of war since the fateful terror attacks on 9/11 rounds out to $1.5 trillion, yet experts maintain that this figure wildly underestimates the true financial burden of perpetual war. "After 16 years, should the taxpayers of America be satisfied we are in a ‘stalemate?' I don't think so," the late Sen. John McCain said in 2017. [...]

This week Donald Trump signed the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), allocating $717 billion to the armed forces. The bill will fund the US Department of Defense, authorize a 2.6% military pay raise and increase the number of US troops by 15,600. [...]