The Government Accountability Office (GAO) watchdog noted in 2023 that the F-35’s existing cooling system is overtasked. This is requiring the engine to operate beyond its design parameters and adding to the overall costs of the programme.

The GAO wrote, “The extra heat is increasing the wear on the engine, reducing its life, and adding $38 billion in maintenance costs.”

The report also noted that the programme was exploring options for modernising the F135 engine and its thermal management system used to cool the aircraft’s subsystems. But it had not fully defined the requirements for how much future cooling the aircraft would need.

Posting the F35 to enshittification might seem like a weird move, who cares if the F35 is broken, the point is to focus on the fact that we are pouring uncomprehensible amounts of money into the military industrial complex and especially F35 program right? Yes but it is worth ALSO laughing at the shear degree of enshittification that has occurred with the F35.

The F35 more than any other machine created by humans is a monument to enshittification and what should intimidate you about that is that in many ways the F35 does work, it is just the weaknesses of the arms program (the biggest one being a completely nation redefining amount of money was wasted on an ok fighter jet) are so massive and defeating of the US way of life that all of the cool fighter capability of the F35, even when it is actually working and not in the shop being repaired/maintained, can never make up for the structural failure and enshittification that has occurred here.