It has been announced that the fifth-generation stealth fighter aircraft has been piloted into combat by a woman for the first time. Captain Emily Thompson took the flight in the F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter but it was not disclosed in what operation she participated, or even in which country the attack took place. All that is known is that she took off from the Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates sometime in early June. The US military has been targeting ISIS in Iraq and Syria from the UAE airbase.
In a statement the pilot, who flies under the codename 'Banzai' said:
"Being the first female, it's a pretty big honour".
The F-35, being a stealth bomber, is very difficult to pick up on enemy radar and can carry vast amounts of weaponry. It is also the most expensive weaponry system in US military history. It is believed that obtaining the fighters cost $400 billion and that upkeep and operational activities will cost the US a further $1.2 trillion according to the Pentagon's own figures.
The US started using the F-35 in 2018 but, it was in fact Israel who were the first country to put the weapon into action. It has since been used across the Middle-East.
The pilot, who originally believed she was going to be an aircraft engineer before she ventured into piloting, went on to say:
"There's a lot of females who have come before me and there's a lot of females already flying combat sorties in other platforms … So, just to be the person who gets that honour, that first, it just meant a lot."
While it is to be praised that another woman is making strides into a world that has been previously dominated by men, it is questionable whether bombings are the sort of thing that should be praised in the first place. Nor is it certain that spending $1.6 trillion on weapons when the US is facing a major unemployment crisis and a failing economy – that has led to many Americans barely making enough to get by – is a particularly good use of taxpayer’s dollars.
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