At Hamilton, we like making things so good they’re bad. As in, casters-so-superior-to-the-competition-that-they’re-almost-renegades-in-their-field bad. As in, trailers-so-divinely-strong-they-break-all-the-rules bad. You know, baaad.
So we could relate when we heard about the training “issues” surrounding the F-35 Lightening II, the fifth generation Air Force stealth fighter jet. During some recent practice simulations against fourth generation surface-to-air (SAM) missiles, ground troops running the simulated anti-air threats couldn’t detect the planes.
That’s right, the jets are so stealthy that nobody could detect them on radar. The pilots had to turn on their transponders just so the folks on the ground at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho had a fighting chance. “We basically told them where we were at and said, ‘Hey, try to shoot at us,’ said Lt. Col. George Watkins, the commander of the 34th Fighter Squadron at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, to the Air Force Times.
With its stealth capabilities, supersonic speed, extreme agility and state-of-the-art sensor fusion technology, the single engine F-35 is largely being touted as the future of military aviation. Essentially, it can be everywhere and nowhere all at the same time.
Like we said. So-good-it’s-bad is an awesome “problem” to have.