Analyst: F-35C to Cost $337 Million Apiece in FY15

DOD Buzz ^

[Yo-Yo]

There won't be many more fighters that will require a pilot. I know that sounds sacrilegious to all the flyboys out there, but that day is coming.

Farther away than you think.

[yawningotter]

I notice the typical liberal hypocrisy with current Pentagon budgets. They moan about DoD spending, but look who is funding projects like the F-35, two LCS designs, etc, and who is getting rich off of all of it.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Yep, a cloud of black smoke followed the F-4 everywhere.

[yarddog]

I remember watching the F-4s at Eglin back in the 60s and 70s. You could always find them just by following the black trails, sort of like the broom the Wicked Witch of the West flew.

Didn’t they eventually replace those engines which smoked so much?

[GeronL]

I was always wondering if they could replace the skin with lighter composites and radar absorbing material and kept them active?

You are right though, more fuel efficient engines, new computers and stuff would have also been needed. Maybe it was easier to build new planes

[Chode]

somewhere, PukinDog is laughing...

[ThunderSleeps]

Last I heard the 15C has never been defeated air to air. Real life that is, not exercises.

[Gene Eric]

I thought it was closer to $200 million, but your point stands.

[yarddog]

I saw a picture of one an Israeli pilot landed with a wing missing from and air to air collision. The way he managed is the root of the wing also had a lot of lift.

Still an amazing feat.

[Patton@Bastogne]

.


Thanks !!!!


I expected some mild "quasi-technical" MSM infobabe interview ... with lots of ridiculous questions ...


Instead ... a "genuine" air combat expert "devastates" the F35 ... mismatched for every one of it's six or seven mission profiles ...


and guaranteed to "kill" U.S. pilots by the hundreds.




.

[Kenny Bunk]

The A4 was a great plane. So easy to fly that even John McCain managed several carrier takeoffs and landings with it.

But let's not drag up that old story of him wet-starting his plane as a practical joke on the guy behind him ... which cooked off the guy behind's Zuni rockets, which punctured John's fuel tanks, causing him to dump his bomb ordinance into the fire and scamper away across the tightly packed planes to safety (on film).

The crew was so pissed off at him that he had to be immediately transferred.. Great guy. What's one heavily damaged carrier and 295 casualties, including 134 KIA when compared to a fabulous practical joke?

[Organic Panic]

A camel is a horse designed by committee.

The f35 was doomed the second a general got his finger in the pie.

[huldah1776]

BFL

[Nowhere Man]

I think we’d do better with more F-16’s and F-18’s and for God’s sake, bring back the F-14! I’m also a big fan of an upgraded F-4 and one of my fave, the F-5 and F-20. The F-15 Silent Eagle is a good plane too.

[Kenny Bunk]

Great link, DJ. Was very uneasy with the F 22/F 35 rationale. I was always unimpressed by stealth. This "seagull X-section" stuff is hogwash. Totally mystified by what's supposed to come after the F 15, F 18, F-16, A-10, especially since the new stuff doesn't look all that much of a leap forward.

It's OK for me to mystified, because that does not cost a lot of money. What ain't OK, if Pierre is to be believed, is that those whom the whimsical gods hath placed above us in the food chain are also mystified to the tune of many many billions..

[gura]

A friend said the F-35 was a “grape”. You squeeze it twice and it’s all out of juice. The F-105 was a better strike fighter.

[gura]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_F-15SE_Silent_Eagle

[gura]

[Secret Agent Man]

need more f-22 /cowbell

and update the f-15s to f-15se’s and do the same stealth updates/on the f-16s and f-18s.

[DaveA37]

Interesting! I wonder what the actual “real cost” is to produce this plane. Having previously been involved with the manufacture of automobiles, I know there are sooo many inflated costs, no one can tell what the “actual” cost really was/is. Same goes for these aircrafts.
(Obviously much of these costs are labor)