somewhere, PukinDog is laughing...
Posted on 06/21/2015 10:04:47 AM PDT by lbryce
Concerns about a naval ‘fighter gap’ and F-35 program failures could help extend Boeing’s fighter jet production line.
As the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program continues to accrue criticism over cost and schedule overruns and missed milestones, the U.S. Navy is looking to an old standby—the Boeing-built F/A-18 Super Hornet—to plug potential holes in its airborne fleet. The Navy’s unfunded “wish list,” headed to lawmakers’ desks this week, includes 12 Boeing-built F/A-18 fighter jets alongside eight Lockheed Martin F-35Cs. Each purchase would be worth roughly $1 billion for the companies—if Congress decides to fund them.
That’s great news for Boeing BA -0.17% , whose F/A-18 production line is set to cease production in 2017 if the company receives no new orders. But a decision on whether to spend the company’s own cash on long-lead production materials like titanium will have to be made this summer, before Congress finalizes its fiscal 2016 budget. A strong signal from the Navy and Congress now could play a big role in that decision.
(Excerpt) Read more at fortune.com ...
The accolades for the F-35 have become less emphatic.....it seems
Don’t expect anything till January 2017
Seems like F-35 is a fiasco. It tries to be everything when it’s not.
The F-35 is a bad idea that isn’t getting better. America’s premier fighters have always been designed to do ONE thing and do it well.
The F-35 was designed to try to do about 4 things, and will end up doing none of them well.
Will end up being the most costly mistake in Pentagon procurement history.
TFX, anyone?
somewhere, PukinDog is laughing...
TFX-McNamara wasn’t quite smart enough to make it work...
well for both the Air Force and the Navy( ; )
TFX-F-111...Too heavy for the Navy and couldn’t “dogfight”
The worth of the new aircraft was beginning to show; F-111s flew more than 4,000 combat missions in Vietnam with only six combat losses.[56]
F-111s participated in the Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm) in 1991.
During Desert Storm, F-111Fs completed 3.2 successful strike missions for every unsuccessful one, better than any other U.S. strike aircraft used in the operation.[62]
The group of 66 F-111Fs dropped almost 80% of the war’s laser-guided bombs, including the GBU-15 and the penetrating, bunker-buster GBU-28.[63]
Eighteen F-111Es were also deployed during the operation.[62][64]
The F-111s were credited with destroying more than 1,500 Iraqi tanks and armored vehicles.[64]
Their use in the anti-armor role was dubbed “tank plinking”.[65]
First use 1967-USA...last retirement Australia 2010...43 years...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Dynamics_F-111_Aardvark
I do hope parts of the F-35 do as well...
Exactly. In Washington insider math, 111 = 35 = a wonderful idea, whereas in the real world 111 = 35 = 0.
....and laughing hard. He literally predicted all of this over ten years ago.
June 17, 2015 The days of the Navy fighter pilot are almost over—or at least they should be.
That's the opinion of Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "We think that the Navy should be looking at drones to replace manned aircraft. I believe that the F-35 is the last manned fighter aircraft," he told National Journal. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said the same during a speech in April: "The F-35 should be, and almost certainly will be, the last manned strike-fighter aircraft the Department of the Navy will ever buy or fly."
100%
Any new Boeing fighers should be EA-18G Growlers.
I remember my Dad saying - “Jack of all trades - master of none”.
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