Posted on 05/05/2018 3:02:59 PM PDT by PIF
We finally see the study that was oddly classified on arrival and it has new relevance based on Japan's desire for a new stealth fighter.
Finally, in early 2016, the debate surrounding the need for more F-22s came to a head and study was mandated by Congress for the USAF to research what putting the super-fighter back into production would take. That study was finished in late 2016 with some of its findings openly discussed, but the document itself remained classified, until now.
Snip
The total procurement cost would be between $40 and $42 billion, with the entire program costing a little more than $50.3 billion.
Snip
But if another country, say Japan, were willing to pay for the non-recurring restart costs, the Pentagon would be crazy not to buy more Raptors for largely their unit cost alone as well as plenty of spare parts to support the fleet efficiently for decades to come.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedrive.com ...
Restart it. The AF could use double their number.
Trump just demanded that China reduce its trade surplus with America by 200 billion per year.
That is four times, the complete start-up costs for the entire F-22 production line.
Saved, in just the first year.
I a really stupid move, the Air Force destroyed the tooling used to create the F-22 in order to deliberately make it uneconomical to build more.
An F-22 with F-35 avionics/Radar and IR detection would be the most awesome aircraft ever put on a drawing board.
Nothing could compete for at least 3 decades.
Restarting a production line is very expensive. We should have kept buying the Raptor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=CCb_XbmB_iE Near the Chesapeake Bay we see them on occasion.
The plane is 20 years old, can’t they come up with a new and improved design? I remember seeing a demonstration of the F-22 at Oshkosh back around 2004.
Poland might like some too.
The F-15c was developed 40 years ago, and it’s still the 2nd best pure fighter in the world.
From Wiki.
“In 2010, USAF initiated a study to determine the costs of retaining F-22 tooling for a future Service Life Extension Program (SLEP).[68] A RAND Corporation paper from this study estimated that restarting production and building an additional 75 F-22s would cost $17 billion, resulting in $227 million per aircraft, or $54 million higher than the flyaway cost.[69] Lockheed Martin stated that restarting the production line itself would cost about $200 million.[70] Production tooling will be documented in illustrated electronic manuals stored at the Sierra Army Depot.[71] Retained tooling will produce additional components; due to the limited production run there are no reserve aircraft, leading to considerable care during maintenance.[72] Later attempts to retrieve this tooling found that the containers were empty.[73]”
If you believe the report in the last sentence. Likely hidden and secret from certain politicos. You don’t lose the tooling for the F-22 Raptor in a secure location like the Sierra Army Depot.
Every person responsible for the tooling destruction should be canned from their gov. job.
Cost and budget issues aside, I LOVE the F-22! I got to see 6 of them flying a demo, some years ago, at an air show run by Hill Air Force base (Utah, 2008, or so).
They are amazing flying machines! I do hope we can get more of them, perhaps with Japan and/or Israel helping with the start-up costs.
Sounds like a winner! share the costs to reduce the cost. I’m for it!
A far better aircraft than the F-35.
That is four times, the complete start-up costs for the entire F-22 production line.
Saved, in just the first year.
You don't really think trade deficits work this way, do you?
JSF competition started in 1996.. F-35 has been if test 17+ years.
There are 3 squadrons of them at Tyndall and around a hundred F-35s at Eglin.
I don’t live that far from either base but have never seen one. Just not in their flying area.
Lockheed needs to be more creative and get that restart price down. I would also like to see an “E” model version that was focused on cruise missile strike. Starting with the new stealthy cruise missile and move to hypersonic missiles. They would be carried externally, but generally be launched at ranges that would not impact stealth based survivability. The U.S. needs to be able to service targets that are otherwise in the bomber exclusive territory.
"Total non-recurring start-up costs over a five year period totaling $9.869 billion in 2016 dollars, equal to more than $10 billion in 2018 dollars at the time of writing.
"This included approximately $228 million to refurbish production tooling, $1.218 billion to requalify sources of components and raw materials, $5.768 billion to redesign four subsystems, and $1.156 billion in other associated “restart costs,” along with $1.498 billion in “additional government costs.”"
Please read the article. It concludes:
"But judging by the report itself, which underlines over and over again that any dollars put toward F-22s could be taken from the F-35 program - both in terms of foreign and domestic procurement - this is unlikely to occur."
I think both political parties have been 100% sold out to China for over the last entire generation.
Everyone. Politicians in both parties. Our media. Economists. Everyone, except Trump.
You also, apparently.
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