Trump's claims have raised a few eyebrows. Photo / AP
Trump's claims have raised a few eyebrows. Photo / AP
While bragging about the United States military capabilities, Donald Trump made one of his most bizarre claims to date.
Speaking to members of the US Coast Guard on Thanksgiving Day, he told the audience the air force was ordering a plane which was "like an invisible fighter".
Trump said he asked "the air force guys" about the abilities of the F-35 plane, according to a report in The Independent.
"They said, well, sir, you can't see it. I said but in a fight. You know, in a fight, like I watch on the movies. The fight, they're fighting. How good is this?" he reportedly said.
"They say, well, it wins every time because the enemy cannot see it. Even if it's right next to them, it can't see it. I said: That helps. That's a good thing."
Although, it is not invisible, the F-35 is incredibly small and designed to be less visible to radar than conventional aircraft.
However, Billy Flynn, a F-35 Lightning II pilot, told The Telegraph, none of the component parts of the aircraft reflect radar energy, it is impossible to see the F-35 while it is in flight.
"When we want to fire a missile or drop a bomb, the doors open, the bomb falls out, the doors close and the aeroplane is back to being invisible again," Flynn told the newspaper.
"This aeroplane, when it flies, is infinitesimally small. It's not Harry Potter and the cloak of invisibility, but it's pretty darn close."
Trump said the air force F-35 Lightning II (pictured) is invisible to the naked eye. Photo / AP
In the transcript of his latest speech, Trump also boasted about how much he was spending on defence.
He claimed his previous administrations had cut back on military spending for a number of years, to the extent that it became "depleted".
"Nobody has the equipment that we have. And it's sad when we're selling our equipment to other countries but we're not buying it ourselves," Trump said.
"But now that's all changed. And I said, the stuff that we have is always a little bit better too. "When we sell to other countries, even if they're allies, you never know about an ally.
An ally can turn. You're going to find that out.
"But I always say make lives a little bit better. Give it that extra speed, a little bit — keep a little bit — keep about 10 per cent in the bag …. Nobody has what we have.
"We're ordering tremendous amounts of new equipment — we're at $700bn for the military. And, you know, they were cutting back for years.
"They just kept cutting, cutting, cutting the military. And you got lean, to put it nicely. It was depleted, was the word. And now it's changing."
