Title: If the F-35 fighter jet is so awesome, why is it so hated? | The Times of Israel
Headings: If the F-35 fighter jet is so awesome, why is it so hated?
If the F-35 fighter jet is so awesome, why is it so hated?
Israel’s next stealth aircraft is the future of modern warfare, but the Pentagon’s program costs over $1.5 trillion — and it’s not yet operational
Some harsh criticism
Serious deficiencies
The way of the future
Israel is committed

Content: “It’s not just an airplane,” Gary L. North, a retired four-star general and former fighter pilot, told The Times of Israel on the sidelines of the conference. Gary L. North, a former four-star general and current Lockheed Martin executive. ( US Air Force)
The interoperability of the F-35’s electronic systems creates an “internet of the sky,” putting together all the information collected by every aircraft in the area into one complete picture that can then be relayed to ground troops and naval forces, he said. The aircraft’s advanced computer system makes the actual flying “very easy,” and allows the pilot to be “less of a technician and more of a tactician,” North said. Yehoshua “Shiki” Shani, a former IAF general and current CEO of Lockheed Martin-Israel, claimed the criticism was just sour grapes on the part of other companies that competed for the contract to develop the platform, while others chalked it up to misunderstanding or the media’s desire for discord. Though debate may rage over the virtues of the futuristic fighter jet, Israel is on track to receive the aircraft later this year. Israeli pilots will leave for the United States shortly to begin training on the platform and the first two F-35 fighter jets are projected to start their journey to Israel on December 12, 2016, according to the air force. Along with the planes themselves, Israel will received an F-35 simulator, one that is “10 times” as immersive as the simplified version brought to the Hilton Hotel, a Lockheed Martin employee said. F-35 chief test pilot Alan Norman, left, speaks with pilot and Likud MK Yoav Kish in an F-35 simulator during a conference at Tel Aviv’s Hilton Hotel on April 3, 2016. ( Judah Ari Gross/Times of Israel)
Using both the simulator and the two jets, the IAF will prepare the first F-35 squadron, known as the Golden Eagles, to use the fifth-generation fighter.