Air force senior command wasn’t pleased by the accident.
March didn’t start well for the U.S air force when a much costly air incident took place. F-35B stealth, the most expensive fighter jet ever built to date, accidentally shot itself while flying over Arizona’s skies.
A single unit of an F-35B costs around $135.8 million, so at first, an aircraft’s accident doesn’t sound appealing at all. The aircraft had an externally mounted Gatling gun discharge a 25mm armor cutting explosive round into itself, leaving the aircraft with damage of approximately $2.5 million, as confirmed by the military officials.
The F-35B stealth aircraft was performing a nigh time air support mission, while during its flight, the aircraft exploded a round of fire in a self-attack scenario. Fortunately, the pilot managed to land the super-costly aircraft to the ground, but the damage done isn’t at low either.
“The mishap did not result in any injury to personnel, and an investigation of the incident is currently taking place,” Marine Corps spokesman Andrew told in a statement.
It was a Class-A accident, as termed by the officials, directing towards a minimum of $2.5 million of loss or the aircraft’s complete inability to make it to the skies ever again.
It is unknown what triggered the ammunition to fire around in a self-attack at the aircraft’s own body. It is for sure that it didn’t fire a complete round, as that capability includes firing up to 3,300 rounds per minute.
The F-35B is a heavily equipped stealth fighter jet having the abilities of short takeoff and vertical landings. As catchy as it sounds, its development has been hindered due to several reasons. Commencing from its initial manufacturing, the aircraft has had engineering flaws, making it the reason for its delay.
The total F-35B development program has cost around $1 trillion and has had numerous issues all across. A previous incidence involves an F-35B jet rolled mid-air, caught fire, and eventually crashed to the ground.
