By Hans Vogel
Sometimes, it would seem, the fate of entire nations is intimately connected to specific items. The highly publicized Joint Strike Fighter is precisely such an item. When the project was first launched, this assertion would merely cause some eyebrows to be raised in surprise. Today, however, the JSF is going through as deep a crisis as the United States. Its development seems to follow the same ups and downs as the nation from which it hails.
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| Beware of JSF, the Swindle of the Century |
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 BREAKING NEWS |
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Originally touted as the ultimate fighter plane, superior in all respects to anything that had ever flown before it, the JSF was supposed to do anything its operators would request it to do: intercept, strafe, bomb, reconnoitre, patrol, in short, take on every rôle imaginable. It would do all that and still beat the competition. The JSF was supposed to be the aeronautical equivalent of superman. To top it off, the JSF was to be equipped with stealth technology so as to render it invisible to enemy air defenses. Needless to say, few in the US were surprised at these specifications, since from early on, US children are raised with the idea that their country is superior. Here, then, was an aeroplane that personified everything the US likes to believe about itself. It was to be, so to speak, the very nation with wings, which really means a lot, since in the US they seem to believe the Air Force is God itself. I am sure future theologians, historians and historical anthropologists will have a field day doing research on this topic.
Begun in the early 1990s in order to replace a number of obsolescent warplanes in the US and other air forces, the JSF program was to produce an aeroplane that would render everything else useless and defenseless. Could it be that the publication of Fukuyama's book on “the End of History” inspired the JSF planning team? Indeed, during the early nineties, optimism was running so high that nothing actually seemed too far-fetched, no goal unattainable. It would seem the US had finally secured its long yearned-for position as the world's sole superpower. The circle had been closed, history had ended, the JSF program could be launched. In 2001, Lockheed-Martin was pronounced the winner of the competition, defeating a design by Boeing.
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