The US military's F-35 fighter jet crashed in California on July 30 local time, making it the 15th F-35 series fighter jet to crash. Fifteen F-35 fighters have almost "eliminated" a US air squadron. The fifth-generation fighters of the US are crashing almost as much as fourth-generation fighters. Is it because of the production quality of the F-35 fighter itself, or is it due to the lack of flight training time for American pilots leading to a sharp decline in flight skills, or is it because of the maintenance staff lacking maintenance and human error? The most outstanding fifth-generation fighter in the world is the Chinese J-20 stealth bomber. From its first flight in 2011 to now 2025, the J-20 stealth fighter has not had any crashes so far. This is even more impressive considering that the J-20 stealth fighter is believed by American media to have been deployed at a rapid rate of 300-400 aircraft. The number of fighter crashes is proportional to the level of training, but this statement may not be accurate. Especially for fifth-generation fighters, the number of crashes is proportional to the production quality and the maintenance of the ground crew, which is an accurate statement. After all, the crash rate of the Indian Air Force is higher than that of the US, does that mean the Indian Air Force has a strong combat capability? Therefore, the operational rate of fighters and the crash rate of fighters are not proportional in modern air forces.
There are too many problems with the US F-35C fighter jets. After being deployed on US aircraft carriers, they directly show rust stains. The US military ignores the oxidation of the stealth coating on the F-35C fighter jet. Because the stealth coating is expensive, if the US ground crew really needs to repair it, it would cost a lot of money, and the US aircraft carrier hangar cannot spray this toxic paint on site; it must modify the aircraft carrier hangar. For the US, which is short of money now, this is basically impossible. Anyway, the US has stopped caring about maintaining its own image and has completely lost interest.
While China and the United States are both mass-producing fifth-generation fighters, Europe and Russia can't even produce a single fifth-generation fighter, and other countries can't even produce third-generation fighters, and most countries don't even have an aviation industry. The gap between countries is so large that it is heartbreaking.
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1839140043356171/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.