AIR POWER
Comments (7)
F-35 is dropping each year. It is expected to be under $80 Mil in the next couple of years. I don't understand the contradictory tone as the pilots love the F-22 and F-35...but then they say in these damn briefings they are always down, always have issues and not combat ready. Then they flip and say they have used them already combat, similar mission ready as legacy. The coatings are an issue like all stealth, but they clean it up and it's back in action.
Bill at 11:33 PMSomebody is outright lying to us. One source claims the high costs of the F-35 are an existential threat to the program. Another source tells us the costs of the F-35 are relatively inline with the costs of planes like the Eurofighter Typhoon or Dassault Rafale. In competitive acquisition programs the F-35 has done well even with countries not in the "supply chain" groups. As it stands, the F-35 is a very popular aircraft flown by fourteen different nations with more than 625 aircraft already built. The Su-57 has a total of 12 aircraft built, the Eurofighter has 571 and the Rafale has 200. Yet we hear repeated stories about how poorly the F-35 does in performance (untrue) and in competitive costs (not sure about that either). We hear constantly about all of the problems with the F-35, yet the Israelis seem to be able to use them very well and somehow seem able to afford them and keep them flying...so where's the problem. Obviously it's with the Americans whom seem to be unable to do anything right. The Americans for some reason can't seem to build aircraft carriers, though they possess eleven of them. The Americans can't build Littoral Combat Ships, though they have 22 or so of those. So either somebody is trying to sabotage American enterprises or somebody is blowing smoke up our skirts.
Brian Foley at 9:20 AMYou are right about the F-35. Really a much bigger disaster than the F-111. Regarding multirole stuff, it is ALWAYS better to design for performance and let the ground attack capability come as a natural fallout of the process. P-47 anyone? I am NOT saying that you can't design aircraft specifically for ground attack, especially for low-risk environments (however I think the wars the Portuguese undertook in the 1960s/70s show that props were vulnerable way back then in Mozambique and Angola) but if you want the multirole to include air combat, that has to be the basis of the requirement. About building old planes to new plans....I feel that the new ways of designing and building things could easily lead to more efficient aircraft that are both modern and cheap. Not sure you could use 70-year-old plans as a basis. Just make it the new way and change the wings etc. if that is what is best. Building methods have changed since the F-35 first hit the factory floor and we can take advantage of these for better but cheaper designs. The above statement is also a well-deserved embarrassment for the F-35!
Dave Ujike at 12:32 AMI think it’s time to put a for in the bloated F35 program. This reminds me of when the Army was testing the new Bradley fighting vehicle and they fudged the results. Never trust the DoD fat cats and defense industry. They will milk this country dry.
gabesdadd at 6:23 PM
the F-22 is a better platform- faster, stealthier, more survivable due to twin engines. it can be fitted out with all the gee-whiz electronics the f35 can carry.
Better still, lets unroll and dust off some of the blueprints for the A-10. Tell the generals and consultants to back the hell off and keep out of it. build a prototype of the same airframe using modern composites, improved materials technology, better engines and enhanced electronics. Then fly it, demonstrate its performance and cost history and let the general drool over its capabilities. You can get one hundred percent state of the art for about 150 million. you can get 90 to 95 percent state of the art for about 20 million. The A10 is to support ground pounders and kill tanks, not fight space aliens.
Once you figure out the process on the A-10, rinse and repeat with most of your fleet overhauls.
There's a hell of a lot of waste and cost over-runs that can be wrung out of the budget.
Some of the best, longest lived and most effective (and cost effective) designs came out of the skunk works because you didn’t have a bunch of generals, consultants and wanna-bes mucking up the works. All those dilatants who keep adding things on to overcome for not getting an electric train set as a kid.
Ditto for the B-52 and B-1. dust off the plans, use modern computer design techniques to clean up the old designs and build the same aircraft. a brand new B52 built according to 70 year old plans has got to be better than a 70 year old B52 built to 70 year old plans. Seriously, how many of those generals are still driving around in a 70 year old family station wagon.
Its like any other project management program. examine the whole project as sub-elements. which break down the most, are most expensive to build, replace, how often. How can the replacement process be made modular to drop the failing part out and quick mount a fully functioning and restored piece of gear. Same for the electronics and weapons loads - mount them on pods which can be quickly swapped out. do the minimum of fuss and fiddling with the airframe and engines, leave the platform alone, just make the add on bits easy to swap out amongst your fleet and you have all the multi-role functionality you can dream of. And you can do that for way less money, getting reliability and mission availability, and timely responsiveness to a changing threat environment.
You don't redesign the postman to deliver a letter versus a daily newspaper. It's the deliverables that count, not the postman. He just needs to be quick, reliable, survivable and consistent. Give our boys modern equipment that works and they can trust. They'll deliver the messages for us, and make it back home to tell us how they did it.
Anyone still believe the F-35 aircraft is a viable program is just plain wrong. It is and always was a "jobs program" and a pork barrel for L&M
Mike Watson at 6:24 PM
The F35 is a failure becasue its still not finished - its still not able to fight on a contested mission.
All hail king Dave at 1:00 AMHere's the worst part - its never going to be finished we wont get the version promised in the (current) block 4 maybe ever. Maybe by 2030?
By the time the F35 is ready to fight its going to be ready for retirement. That's the hard truth and it really sucks.
(That's not to say that country's like Israel who have no other stealth aircraft cannot use them successfully for specifically tailored missions.)