America's F-35 fighter jet lacks state of the art radar

[kan...@aol.com]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/04/27/pentagon-fighter-jets-are-being-delivered-without-radar/

Interesting article. SOTA radar requires gallium. Today, China provides 99% of the world's gallium. It is however, available from the waste product of aluminum smelting. The US has reasonable aluminum ore supplies; but extracting gallium is expensive and dirty. And China has lowered prices to the point where it's not feasible to compete. The US and other allies have essentially offloaded gallium production to China. But in today's geopolitical climate that's not such a great idea. 

The US is moving towards rectifying the issue. But it will take time. In the meantime, the F-35's have ballast in the nose where the SOTA radar is slated to go. Another reason to work WITH China instead of slapping tariffs on them willy-nilly.