Patrick letter: F-35 mission
“We don’t know what we don’t know” is a good reason for Boise City leaders to start reading the news or listening to their constituents.
The latest news calls the F-35 a “fighter-bomber” and informs that it was designed with nuclear capability in mind. That explains the F-35A being louder than any of the existing fighter jets, and second only to B-1 bombers, as seen in the Boise airport’s 2015 noise study.
Current plans are for integrating “nuclear capability” such as B-61 bombs into the F-35 in years 2020-2022 — matching the date of the start of F-35A deliveries to Gowen Field, in the case Idaho ANG “wins” a new mission.
Apparently citizens who wrote to the Idaho Statesman saying they do not want Boise on a nuclear target list were referring to the actual plans.
The official findings of an F-35A fire at Mountain Home AFB runway in 2016 were recently “explained” by P&W engine design. The fire was started by the tailwinds, and became uncontained because more fuel was being fed into the slowing engine on fire.
The more I read about various “features” of F-35A, the more it sounds like a disastrous mission for Boise city limits.
Inna Patrick, Boise
This story was originally published August 22, 2017 at 10:19 PM with the headline "Patrick letter: F-35 mission."