The Navy's and Marine Corps' versions of the F-35 will have restrictions on how long they can fly at supersonic speeds because of a risk of damage to the tail section.
Supersonic flight at the edge of the F-35 jet's flight envelope could cause structural damage or degrade its stealth coating, warn documents exclusively obtained by Defense News.
How serious were the problems? Serious enough that a couple countries threatened to pull out of the program, according to U.S. Defense Department documents.
The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps’ F-35s become unpredictable to handle when executing the kind of extreme maneuvers a pilot would use in a dogfight or while avoiding a missile.
During low-light conditions, the F-35's night vision camera display starts showing wonky horizontal lines across the screen that obstruct the pilot's view of the horizon.