The F-35 program continues to work through a litany of problems, but this one is almost laughable. According to the USAF, the troubled fighter cannot use gas from standard green colored USAF fuel trucks if it has been sitting in the sun. Considering that these jets will most likely find themselves operating in the desert or in somewhere in the scorching Pacific, this is a big problem.
Sadly, the answer for the F-35's fuel finicky conundrum, one of many heat related issues with the jets since their testing began, is being addressed outside of the F-35 aircraft itself, in the form of repainting standard USAF fuel trucks with bright white solar reflective paint.
Clearly it is not tactical in any way to be driving a giant white potential fuel-bomb around a battle zone. This is especially true considering that the F-35B variant is supposed to operate 'forward' from austere fields. Still, the solar reflective paint job, that costs around four grand for each truck, seems to be less expensive than fixing the issue on the jet itself, as there is no word of that happening.....
