2. The F-35 has a massive internal engine just to accomodate the "jump jet" requirement, and it has turned the F-35 into a flying brick.
Posted on 01/24/2016 11:29:20 PM PST by sukhoi-30mki
One of the earliest stealth weapons on record was a stone used by the young Israelite David to kill the Philistine giant Goliath. In the biblical account, David shunned the conventional armaments of his time: sword, helmet, armor. Instead, he went forth with a slingshot and a few stones, kept undetected in a pouch. As any schoolchild knows, one well-aimed fling was all it took to put Goliath down for good. The big guy never saw it coming.
It is not clear to what extent David tested his weapon before doing battle, but he presumably had experimented. The first Book of Samuel tells how he had earlier struck and killed a lion and a bear that menaced the sheep he tended.
In a sense, not much is different with today’s far more sophisticated arsenals; development and testing remain essential. Only the costs and the stakes are considerably higher now, as is made evident in this latest offering from the video documentary producers of Retro Report, who have focused on a supersonic stealth plane called the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. While still a work in progress, it has already become the most expensive weapons project in military history.
By the time the F-35 program is fully up and running — with an American fleet of more than 2,400 planes planned by the late 2030s — projected total costs will exceed $1 trillion. One billion dollars will be needed just to pay for the highly advanced pilot helmets, running to $400,000 apiece. And though champions of the supersonic F-35 hail it as the ultimate sky fighter for the 21st century, skeptics ask if it is worth all the money and effort, or even if it will prove as effective in its mission as David’s little stone was in its day.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
2400 planes?
Be lucky if we see 240.
But the F-22 was shot down because this piece of over-priced salesmanshit was going to be cheaper.....
IMO the future of air combat is unmanned stealthy drone fighters.
It drastically lowers cost when you don’t have to design for pilot safety.
It’s also rather easy to send a pilot on a suicide mission if he is half a world away in an air conditioned trailer. :-)
A couple hundred Raptors would be a nice way to tide us over until suitable unmanned stealth drone fighters are developed.
Abandon the F-35 before it bankrupts us all!
F-22 was our air supremacy machine...
The dotes in Washington which clipped its wings should be held accountable.
You have pilots now wanting to go back to F-15s once they try the F-35...
It really is a sad state the American military finds itself in today...
It seems like, from what I’ve read and heard on the news, the F-35 has cost so much now that if they were to abandon it now it would make everyone involved look like idiots.
Doesn’t it also make them look like idiots if they keep beating a dead horse and racking up more debt to get something that will never work to work?
It’s too bad really because in theory the F-35 does sound like a badass fighter jet if it actually worked like advertised.
But the F-22 couldn’t fly from a carrier, right?
IMO the future of air combat is unmanned stealthy drone fighters.
I certainly would not argue against your point, and if there needs to be a manned air combat plane, perhaps more planes, pilots and better tactics, will matter more than technology.
IOW a larger numerical force with somewhat reduced capability, at a far cheaper price.
Quantity has a quality all it’s own.
[was said about the cheap Russian tanks in WW2]
2. The F-35 has a massive internal engine just to accomodate the "jump jet" requirement, and it has turned the F-35 into a flying brick.
The F-22 was also short down because creeps like ex-Sen Obey (D) hated the US military and wanted to cripple it anyway he could; thus, the Obey Amendment forbidding the export of the plane, effectively killing any recovery of costs or profits. The people behind Obey began the chant of “too expensive, F-35 cheaper” all of which was a lie, but it sounded good to those who knew nothing about the military. procurement, or the different role hardware pieces play. Some on FR at the time took up the chant as well.
No, because it was killed before a carrier capable version could even pass the concept stage.
Before this abomination ever got off the drawing board, a number of leading a/c designers were telling anyone who’s listen that stealth and VERTOL are inherently mutually exclusive capabilities.
Correct, but neither could the F-15.
Different equipment for different missions.
My SIL works on the power pack.
I will say it’s a “jobs” program for engineers if little else.
The same people who advocated the F35 over the F22 are now in the process of pecking the F35 to death with a constant drumbeat of negative information...
So called “think tanks” and study groups that have considerable influence in Congress are liberals to the core.
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