Posted on 05/10/2019 8:11:52 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
USAF Ping.
Don’t mess with my pension funding now. LM needs to provide for me. LOL!
Anyone familiar with the DOD acquisition process would recognize cause and effect here. Top priority means all kinds of bureaucratic attention that contributes nothing to completing a successful engineering program but ensures that nothing will be delivered until the bureaucracy has rung out every possible dime they can from the program to grow and feed the bureaucracy.
It's the way we do things here in the swamp. And the exponential growth of the swamp bureaucracy continues apace, unimpeded by anything.
The F-15EX is a bridge to when the F-35’s get all the bugs worked out. Then they can be sold to 3rd world AF’s................
Eglin just got approved for another F-35 Wing................
Right behind you Brother. 3.5 years away.
Dont worry we are pumping out C-130s like crazy!
Apples vs. Oranges: How They Compare.
Lockheed has delivered over 200 F-35A's to the USAF. They do not need a bridge. The F-35EX will be a bomb truck, carrying a heavier load than the F-35A can.
The USAF will take decades to overcome cancelling the F-22 for air superiority.
The F-15EX is a gift to Boeing to keep the F-15 production line open a few more years from former Boeing executive, the acting Defense Secretary and now Defense Secretary nominee Patrick Shanahan.
The money should be used to update the existing F-15C fleet with AESA radar, as was originally planned for when the F-22 buy was curtailed to 187 airframes.
Go look at the age of the F-15C fleet and check out the increasing number of airframe failures we’re having with them.
Also, the AESA radar is less of an issue today - in the modern battlefield against a peer, near-peer or well equipped by either opponent, you radiate you die.
The Air Force identified 176 F-15Cs with low enough airframe hours to justify upgrading them to "Golden Eagle" standard. The Air Force only funded 42.
Also, the AESA radar is less of an issue today - in the modern battlefield against a peer, near-peer or well equipped by either opponent, you radiate you die.
That makes an AESA radar even more important today. The F-22 and F-35 both have AESA radar, and it is used not only for scan and track, but it is also used as an active jamming emitter that can be shaped into a very narrow beam to only jam the target but not give away its position to off-boresight receivers.
The F-15EX would have the same AESA radar. There is no need to purchase new build F-15EX aircraft when we have plenty of F-15Cs with low enough hours to fly for another decade, or to upgrade with a SLEP at a far lower cost than a new build aircraft.
Again, this is a bone thrown to Boeing from a former Boeing executive.
That $20,000 number is the Operational and Maintenance cost per hour, and includes all costs associated with supporting a fighter wing, including all of the base services.
Costs include direct flying costs, maintenance personnel, hangers, runways, simulators, barracks to house the maintenance troops, and the bowling alley to keep them entertained during off-duty hours.
The direct Cost per Flying Hour, which includes three commodity groups: Consumable Supplies, Aviation Fuel, and Depot Level Repairables, is about $8,000 per flying hour.
Three words: Home On Jam. Yes, that works against even the narrow beam produced by AESA - as demonstrated by our own late mark AIM-120s which do work against AESA in narrow beam jam mode.
You radiate, you die.
IIRC, there are also reports that some of the Golden Eagles are suffering from airframe problems now.
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