Stop the F-35

At least noise, loss of homes and neighborhoods, lost property values, fudged scoring, nepotism, buying an election and misleading reporting are not killing anybody. All that was described in the article, “Follow the money: The F-35 Fudge-gate scandal” on VTDigger.

Unfortunately it gets worse: safety for thousands of people is also at risk, thanks to some of our elected public officials and their commercial developer friends.

Air Force expects crash rate of F-35 to be much higher than crash rate of F-16

Is the Vermont Air National Guard being used for purposes having nothing to do with its military mission? The answer is yes. Big time. And for big money. In the article, “Quite a Pair of Stings for F-35 Basing” on VTDigger I described how the scoring process was fudged. This article will follow the money to see why.

The Boston Globe report that Pentagon officials “fudged” numbers in their F-35 base selection process was only the first of two near simultaneous blows to F-35 basing in Burlington. That story so dominated the news that the other equally devastating blow to first round F-35 basing in Burlington was completely upstaged and overlooked by all the local news media: The Air Force said that its entire fleet of F-16s will be upgraded and its life extended.

The first sting: “Fudge-gate”

Editor's note: more ongoing design issues with the biggest boondoggle in Pentagon history.

BY TONY CAPACCIO
Bloomberg News

The Pentagon’s top weapons buyer is backing calls to restore a valve on Lockheed Martin’s F-35 jet that improves the fighter’s chances to survive a hit from a high-explosive round.

Adding an improved valve “would result in the aircraft being fully compliant” with its operational requirements, Frank Kendall, the undersecretary for acquisition, wrote a lawmaker last month in a previously undisclosed letter.

Check out the full WPTZ story at http://www.wptz.com/Dutch-journalist-comes-to-Vermont-wants-to-learn-abo...

Thursday, May 30th, 7 pm. Unitarian Universalist Church Burlington at the top of Church Street.

• Pierre Sprey, co-designer of the F-16 and the A-10 jets
• Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s
• US Air Force Colonel Rosanne Greco (ret.)
• “Gramma” Carmine Sargent, who lives in the noise zone
• Rabbi Joshua Chasan

Come one come all! Come get the scoop!

• 150 affordable homes now vacant or demolished because of F-16 noise
• Air Force says the F-35 is more than 4 times louder than the F-16
  

The Burlington International Airport Noise Compatibility Program Update under 14 CFR Part 150 is a 62 page report prepared for the City of Burlington in April 2008. The report states on page 29 that "land acquisition and relocation is the only alternative that would eliminate the residential incompatibility" with the noise level produced by F-16 jets operating at the airport. Due to additional materials included in the attachment, please see page 41 of the attached pdf below. Please note this is a large file.

Editor's Note: Green Ribbon people, please give up your cries of "The F-35 is Patriotic." Patriotic does rhyme with idiotic, but they're not the same thing. As we all know, our nation has a tight budget at present. Wasting valuable resources on a disastrous, ineffective, highly overpriced pork package is not "patriotic." When the immortal Chuck Yeager dismisses the F-35 out of hand, we should be listening to him, regardless of our claims of patriotism.

The Bread & Puppet Theater is doing an F-35 theme at the May Day March in Montpelier organized by the Vermont Workers Center.

Peter Schumann, Director of the Bread and Puppet Theater, invited members of the Stop the F-35 Coalition and everyone opposed to the F-35 basing in Burlington to join the F-35 Bread & Puppet contingent at May Day march in Monepelier May 1.

Bread & Puppet is marching with a giant F-35 monster. There will also be a big cloth boat with daffodils, people with shields and flags, and choreography involving non-violently attacking the F-35 monster.