Posted on 12/22/2016 3:34:47 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Thursday that because of the high cost of Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 fighter, he had asked Boeing Co to offer a price for a "comparable F-18 Super Hornet."
"Based on the tremendous cost and cost overruns of the Lockheed Martin F-35, I have asked Boeing to price-out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet!," Trump wrote on Twitter....
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
“Nothing is comparable to the F-35.”
The P-35 and Brewster Buffalo come to mind.
Sorry I meant the P-39 of course.
The Competition in Contracting Act (CICA) of 1984 is United States legislation governing the hiring of contractors. It requires U.S. federal government agencies to arrange “full and open competition through the use of competitive procedures” in their procurement activities unless otherwise authorized by law.
https://interact.gsa.gov/blog/competition-contracting-act-cica
Exactly right. And along that same vain, a few thousand more A-10s would probably be a good idea. With whatever upgrades that may be available.
vein, duh
Ping!
That’s the one I was rooting for. We need a fighter that looks like a pelican.
True, but at what cost? If it’s mission is to replace the A-10 then it’s totally over qualified and over priced for the job. Keep the 300 mph faster F-22’s coming and use them and the FA-18 as leverage to lower the F-35 costs.
I bet Obama didn’t even know the US was building the F-35 fighter
Back in the early seventies I was working for Hughes Aircraft Company and we took an instrumented Phoenix missile back Grumman to hang on an F-14 and measure the captive flight environment. Its first flight was on flight number three of F-14 number three. About two years later we had heard that number three departed and the pilot recovered and landed. At that debrief that were many naval officers and I assumed they were picking up jets to go to the fleet.
The F-14 didn't have a bazillion lines of code but it was still a pretty complex airplane.
In my opinion the major problem with defense acquisition is the fact that after all the defense companies merged there is no competition and no innovation.
“Let’s just build some cheap stealth drones to take out the radar and air defense, THEN we can send in the expensive stuff with our precious human pilots.”
I am all for that. Worked on the XB-47, too!
” unless otherwise authorized by law. “
Read that part and get back to us. There is plenty of wiggle room in that. Used it many times in my career.
The panties are sopping wet on Fox over this. “You can’t deal in military aircraft deals on TWITTER?!?!?”
Well, why the f not? If it works and gets us, the American people, better, cheaper stuff?
I am loving winning.
“after all the defense companies merged there is no competition and no innovation. “
Yep. Sad to think that my career started in the early 80’s and the dozens of major contractors I worked with are almost all merged into just a handful now. Innovation has greatly suffered.
Spot on! Having been involved in government procurement I know that it all starts in the specifications process. Throw in jobs creation in key voting reps districts, mission creep, graft and the normal profit markup and you end up with a bird that does more than intended at inception but is so overly engineered and overly complicated it spends more time on the ground than in the air. Remember the F-111 Albatross?
We may never have another politician in the White House if Trump the businessman makes all this work.
True and no sale until it’s proven.
Especially the price!
The P-39 suffered from lack of a supercharger. Still, the Russians were glad to get them.
The F-22 was never intended for use on carriers - navalization is a lot more complex and expensive than just slapping a tailhook on the back, a naval refueling probe on the front and calling it a day.
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