[myknowledge]

Related articles:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2470208/posts

http://www.ausairpower.net/APA-NOTAM-170809-1.html

http://www.ausairpower.net/APA-NOTAM-111109-1.html

The fighter program has not gone too well, behind schedule and cost overruns for LockMart. The GAO is asking why. The F-35 Lightning II is one of the most expensive fighter programs, so expensive it is almost five times that of the F-22 Raptor and makes the latter more attractive for continuity of production (and it makes a superior fighter, with supercruise and all-aspect stealth).

[Bulldawg Fan]

Obama’s idiots in DC (including his excuse makers at the Pentagon, in and out of uniform) made the decision to ditch the world’s best aircraft, the F 22. If only Georgia had been a blue state........ (thats how their key defense and other decisions are made)

[PhiKapMom]

Last October, the head of Lockheed told everyone that the plane was under price and he would go to three shifts to keep it on schedule. He should be fired along with seom AF people who have been covering up — more then just the head of the Super SPO.

The reorganization of the AF from the early 90’s is catching up with the in more ways then one.

[Waverunner]

It’s all about the money and futzing around with the total aircraft buy.. The F-22 was about 24 million per airframe when they were going to buy 750 over ten years in the early nineties, a production rate of 6-7 planes a month. Now they are buying 180 planes over twenty years. Of course the price went through the roof. The entire support structure for manufacturing and building was kept in place longer and produced less. When Congress enacted inventory taxes back in the 70’s the whole concept of EOQ ( economic order quantity) went out the door. Manufacturing engineers used to plan costs based on optimum production lot size, now it’s how much will it cost to make one JIT ( just in time).
Way more expensive.... Thanks Congress .. once again lawyers and politicians stick the taxpayer for their lack of business experience.

[InterceptPoint]

There’s an old saying in the Defense business about any program that is “Joint”, like Joint Strike Fighter. Maybe someone remembers it but the essence of it is that “Joint” programs which are generally jointly sponsored by the Army, Navy and the Air Force, are doomed to failure. Too many cooks, spoiled soup.

[Vroomfondel]

ping

[Sequoyah101]

These Aussies have never liked it (the F-35). I have been trying to absorb their assessments for some time and have not found their evaluations to be seriously flawed...they seem to be rational and without axes to grind. I don’t like what I see for us and feel it is a great travesty that our military has been used as a political tool...we will pay the price in young men and perhaps freedom.

We can only contemplate the use of UAV and cheap interdiction aircraft because we have no serious threats to at will use of the airspace we are fighting in. As for UAVs replacing manned aircraft...how does one control an attack UAV if control signals are jammed? How does one adapt to a fluid battlefield with a set attack plan programmed internally so as to avoid jamming? Is it possible to build fully capable flexible thinking self-contained systems incorporating sufficiently capable “fuzzy-logic”, such as is possible with a human, into an autonomous computer driven UAV?

They say in respect to the PAK-FA:

“Detailed strategic analysis indicates that the only viable strategic survival strategy now remaining for the United States is to terminate the Joint Strike Fighter program immediately, redirect freed funding to further develop the F-22 Raptor, and employ variants of the F-22 aircraft as the primary fighter aircraft for all United States and Allied TACAIR needs.

If the United States does not fundamentally change its planning for the future of tactical air power, the advantage held for decades will be soon lost and American air power will become an artefact of history.”

[Wuli]

I wonder how much the proportion of European-based components in the venture is a factor in the total cost increase (what are the component-by-component increases and the national sources of each component with a major increase?).

[magslinger]

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