And at Eglin's Air Force Armament museum.
Won't have far to take one, just a mile or two................
Posted on 10/16/2017 7:03:45 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
The U.S. military has signaled that it might cancel essential upgrades for more than 100 early model F-35 stealth fighters flown by the Air Force, rendering the radar-evading jets incompatible with many of the latest weapons.
In that case, some 6 percent of the flying branch’s planned 1,700-strong F-35 fleet would be unfit for combat, sticking U.S. taxpayers with a $20 billion tab for fighters... that can’t fight.
Experts say the military never should have bought the planes the first place, as they rolled out of Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth factory before the F-35’s design was complete and thoroughly tested—a deliberate strategy called “concurrency” that the military hoped would speed up the program’s progress.
“The risk that the services would be stuck with less-than-capable aircraft is one that the Pentagon knowingly took when leaders decided to overlap the development and testing of the program with the production,” wrote Dan Grazier, an analyst with the Project on Government Oversight in Washington, D.C. Skipping upgrades for 108 older F-35As—“concurrency orphans,” Grazier dubbed them—is reportedly one option under consideration as the Pentagon tries to find money for scores of newer F-35s. “We’re looking at solution spaces to give our warfighters options,” Navy Vice Adm. Matt Winter, head of the F-35 program, told Flight Global. The military asked Congress to fund 70 F-35s in 2018 for $10.3 billion.
The F-35s in question mostly have the so-called Block 2B software, which the military calls the “initial warfighting” version of the jet’s complex computer code. F-35s with Block 2B software can carry just four different kinds of bombs and missiles—far fewer than the F-35 was designed to carry when the fully combat-capable Block 3C software is installed.
Jets with Block 3C code are also more maneuverable than Block 2B models are.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
I had the good fortune of working with a lot of F4 pilots when in the USAF. Great bunch of guys.
POGO EXPOSED: THE “GOVERNMENT WATCHDOG” IS JUST ANOTHER ANTI-DEFENSE LIBERAL GROUP
26/07/2012
By Zbigniew Mazurak
The Project On Government Oversight claims it is, and is described by others, as an independent government spending “watchdog”. Yet, a close scrutiny and analysis of its biased “reporting” and its ridiculous blogposts and articles reveals that it is anything but. It is, in fact, just another anti-defense liberal group whose mission seems to be to spread anti-defense propaganda and campaign for deep defense cuts.
Its Director, Danielle Brian, was fiercely rebuked by me many months ago for downplaying the disastrous impact of, and lying about, sequestration (which POGO still supports), and POGO’s Ben Freeman was rebuked by me several weeks ago for calling for the cancellation of the F-35 B and C variants.
And it’s clear that deeply cutting – and gutting – defense is the foremost goal on POGO’s agenda. Not only do they clamor for deep defense cuts (including sequestration), the vast majority of the defense budget “waste” they whine about is not waste at all, but crucial military capabilities and weapon systems they call for terminating!
See, for example, this list of deep defense cuts they demand. The vast majority of the “waste” they single out for termination is not waste, but needed military capabilities: the aircraft carrier fleet, upgrades to the dilapidated 1980s’ tank fleet, the V-22 Osprey (the most capable VTOL aircraft ever built, with 150,000 flight hours under its belt), the SSBN fleet (they call for cutting it to just 8 boats, down from 14 today), the Next Generation Bomber program, the SBIRS, the PTSS, the B and C variants of the F-35, highly-enriched-uranium-inventories, nuclear weapon production facilities, the MOX facility at Savannah, and any further development of and additions to the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense System. (What weapons do they want the military to use? Muskets?)
Such cuts and eliminations would gravely weaken the US military and disastrously jeopardize national security.
Well speaking as someone who spent many years as a DoD contractor, I’ll take the Daily Beast On this one. The amount of money squandered by the DoD is eye watering.
Are the airframes all that different that they cannot be upgraded directly?.................
Proof that if you put big enough engines on it, you can fly a brick. But that said, when the AB goes on and that trail of black smoke goes skyward, there was a chill like you never experienced before. Trouble was that it couldn’t drop a snake-eye in the same province as the willie pete.
I think Trump’s love of the military has blinded him to the biggest source of waste and fraud in the government. If I were him I’d sic some one of his loyalists to rooting out waste and misspending at the DoD. The result would probably simultaneously save taxpayers a trillion dollars every few years AND make our war fighters safer.
And at Eglin's Air Force Armament museum.
Won't have far to take one, just a mile or two................
No, I'll not be siding with the Daily Beast. Their record of fabrication and prevarication is too long and too putrid to ignore.
Question: The definition of an elephant?
Answer: A mouse built to military specifications.
Meanwhile the Navy’s LCS continues to fail. Solution? Make it bigger!
Upgrading the software isn't as easy as sticking in a USB stick. There are also expensive hardware upgrades that go along with it.
F-35 is a keep-Lockheed-afloat program more than a fighter program.
Actually, this is a sound application of one of the First Principles of finance and engineering economics -- you ignore "sunk costs" when making economic decisions. Those monies are already spent and there is nothing you can do about it. The decision at hand here is "Which is the most cost-effective path forward given what we know today? Is it cheaper to upgrade the first 100 aircraft built or is it cheaper to buy new aircraft?" The real crime would be if the military were NOT asking this core question all the time.
This principle is very old, too. Andrew Carnegie made vast quantities of high quality, cheap steel by constantly ripping out old technology and replacing it with new. There are stories about him (apocryphal?) not starting newly installed technology because it would cost more to put it in service than install and start newer, more efficient technology.
So, beware of hidden agendas of liberal sources and do not dismiss out of hand that it makes more sense to buy new than refurbish old, even if old has not been placed in service.
In 1970 or 71, I was working for Hughes Aircraft Company. We instrumented a phoenix missile to measure the captive flight environment on the F-14. It made its first flight on flight number 3 of F-14 number 3. We flew it many times over the next couple of years and I was there when the planes were delivered to the fleet. The F-14 didn’t have a zillion lines of code, but it was still a complex airplane and didn’t take years and years to complete development. I was really impressed with Grumman’s capabilities and thrilled that I got to watch an airplane being developed.
My own personal experience says you’re right. The AG needs to investigate this bunch, they are nothing more than democrat operatives. It’s past time I should show how democrats operate. This was in the 2008 timeframe. It all started when HP released the political donations to the republicans by the president and officers of the company I worked for. A small business defense contractor, my particular group had specialized in VIP travel and communications related to military aircraft. Here is a video of the background on one of the projects, a second generation system intended to replace the first. This project was used by Generals and other VIPs including Hillary Clinton, who is not a military or pentagon official per the video. There have been many postings on here including the picture of her sitting on the four seat pallet wearing her Muslim brooch. The individual in the video puts his little spin on the project and shows various military emails on his computer screen related to the project. His “luxury” seating as he puts it, are in fact crashworthy (16 g’s) aircraft seats. Even as far back as ‘97, these seats were running upwards of $20k each. We interfaced with the general on design requirements as in any process in a build cycle, more spin. What he fails to mention in his little spin, is where he got these emails or the fact proprietary and bidding information was also released. General McMahon was the one called to congress and abused by Nancy Pelosi. Meanwhile, in the same timeframe the hypocrite flies on a military plane, and it has been reported $100k has been spent on booze. Per the video, POGO was given a raft of documents by an insider, seems our next AG should be investigating this whole episode. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW9FjTcBpvE
Related Air Force release. http://www.af.mil/News/ArticleDisplay/tabid/223/Article/122969/air-force-officials-buy-offices-in-the-air.aspx
And the Phoenix missile never ended up hitting anything in combat despite several launches...
At some point these planes will likely receive an upgrade, IMO. The USAF may hold some back to equip each fighter wing with a few trainers. Convert the rest for squadron service.
What did that have to do with the development of the airplane?
Cool story: When stationed at Indian Mtn AFS in Alaska, I once asked an F4 pilot for a "bubble check". It was 6AM on a Sunday morning. Whole lot of folks got the "rise and shine" call that morning. Right after the jock fulfilled my request, I got a call from the Commander wanting to know just what the hell was going on. Hilarity ensued shortly after that. LOL!!!
But that still wasn't as cool as getting a bubble check from some A-10's from Myrtle Beach while in some field exercises. One of 'em did a friggin' aileron roll between our radio antennas - we all ducked on that one.
The F-14 was designed as a Phoenix missile carrier. And yet the Phoenix missile never hit anything in combat.
Boeing just cannot accept losing - sour grapes!
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