Posted on 05/30/2010 7:24:44 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
They’re doing that too. And that is expensive as well.
That’s a very dangerous path to start down.
A-7, F-8 and many WWII aircraft were single engine as is the Harrier today. Navy signed up for a single engine aircraft because (1) engines are much more reliable than they were 20 years ago and (2) They didn’t want the AF and Marines to get a new stealthy aircraft while they flew old fashioned ones with very limited stealth.
In Desert Storm the AF had guided weapons and the Navy didn’t. There weren’t many DS missions that could be assigned to the Navy, and their air tasking orders reflected it. No fault with the Navy aviators, just their equipment wasn’t up to snuff. The Navy didn’t want to suffer that lack again. Remember, the Navy and Marines were disbanded once as having no relevance to US defense needs.
And estimates that are likely to be on the low side at that.
And as the article correctly says, estimates are always lower then the real costs, so expect the Navy’s F35 to fly at least 63% fewer times than current aircraft.
“It costs 63 percent more to operate the F-35C (480 will be bought to replace navy F-18Cs) and the F-35B (340 will replace marine F-18s and AV-8s). These costs include buying the aircraft, ...”
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In other words it does NOT cost 63 percent more to operate.
What a misleading article.
But based on whose numbers? NAVAIRs, LM’s, JPO, etc? Folks sure seem to be in a hurry to put a stake in this airplane and it’s JUST started it’s flight testing program.
I doubt it would be NAVAIR since the plane hasn’t been fielded yet. However, I do know the Navy has a lot of green eye-shade people that work on procurements that would have been reporting on the projected life-cycle costs of the plane for a long time now.
The life cycle costs of any system can generally be calculated with a reasonable degree of acccuracy. When they are wrong, because a system breaks down and requires unanticipated repairs, the actual costs will exceed the projected costs.
BS. Apparently you never flew any missions in the Intruder, Prowler, Corsair II or Hornet or launched any Tomahawks during Desert Storm. As only one example the first SLAM used in combat was deployed by the Navy.
There weren’t many DS missions that could be assigned to the Navy, and their air tasking orders reflected it.
BS. The ATOs were generated by the air force. That's why NAVAIR had a limited role in Desert Storm. Had the Navy had a flag officer with a backbone like the Marines' Royal Moore, who effectively made his case to Schwarzkopf, to tell Horner to go f*** himself, they would have gotten a bigger piece of the pie.
“the Dutch Government has bowed out of the project because of the price tag.”
The first of several governments, probably. And I suspect the US Navy won’t be long behind them. The Marines will scream, but too bad. The Navy needs ships AND planes to fly off of them, and with the F-35, they can’t have both.
I suppose we could have slowed down the air war so the Navy could catch up.
The ATOs were generated by headquarters with joint membership. The Navy members developed targets that the Navy could fly. It just took more aircraft to accomplish the same job, so they assigned the Navy missions appropriate to their assets. Only 11% of all missions were guided. The Navy share of missions were lower than that. The Navy after that made sure that they had a proper complement of guided missions.
It is true that the Navy has many other demands for funding besides the strike mission. So does the Air Force. At that time and place the AF had a greater share of guided weapons than the Navy. Next time it may be different. The Navy learns from its errors.
The Navy has many communities within it. NavAir swings a big bat, but has competition from the Submariners and the surface fleet, among others. Procurement in the Navy is the closest thing to a blood sport we have in the United States.
Add F-8 and A-7.
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