Posted on 02/04/2010 7:03:57 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Lockheed Martin has added all variants of the Boeing F-15 to an internal analysis of US Air Force platforms the company believes will be replaced by the F-35A Lightning II.
Lockheed now predicts the F-35A will replace the F-15C/D air superiority fighter and the F-15E Strike Eagle.
The USAF officially lists the F-35's conventional takeoff and landing variant as a ground-attack fighter complementing the air superiority mission, replacing only the Lockheed F-16 and the A-10.
The speculative and unofficial addition of the F-15C/D and F-15E fleets allows Lockheed to claim the USAF's requirement to buy 1,763 F-35As over the next 20 years remains intact despite recent policy changes.
Lockheed provided the analysis to Flight International in response to questions about the potential impact of the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), which proposes to slash the USAF's theatre strike wing-equivalents to 10 to 11 wings.
The reduction potentially devastates the USAF's demand for 1,763 F-35As. If the USAF maintains a 72-aircraft wing structure, only 720 to 792 combat-coded fighters are needed to perform the F-35's primary mission.
That role is currently performed by a mix of F-16s, A-10s and F-15Es. Lockheed's analysis assumes the mission would be performed exclusively by F-35s within 25 years.
"All the A-10s and F-15Es would reach their life during the USAF buy of F-35s (~2035) with no other tactical strike platform to replace their full capability other than F-35s", Lockheed's analysis says.
(Excerpt) Read more at flightglobal.com ...
When? The F-35 is already billions over budget and months behind schedule. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2444670/posts
Hopefully there are already other platforms on the drawing board today, otherwise we are going to end up real short on airplanes.
Pardon my colloquialism but screw the F35. Build the F22.
I’m sorry but the powers that be have screwed the pooch so bad on front line military aviation.
Now this is not a criticism of the F-15/16, A-10, B-1, B-2, F/A-18 communities or airframes. It’s a criticism of what’s supposed to come next and the problems in the pipeline.
The F-22 was a miracle of aviation. Yes, pricey, yet it would have been unbeatable for another 30 years by which point manned combat aviation might be the equivalent of infantry fighting with black powder weapons. There were no calls that the F-22 wasn’t mission capable, just expensive.
I can state without almost no fear of being disputed that the F-35 cannot fill the air supremacy role the F-22 was designed to fill. I can also state with equal conviction that shutting down the A-10 production line was the single dumbest thing the Air Force has done to the ground troops of this nation in its existence.
I agree. The F-35 will never be half as good as the F-22. As with most things that are made to do too may things, they do none of them well.
P.S. Dump the F-35 and spend the money on more F-22s and look for a carrier capable equivalent of the F-22.
Arguably, we would be better off getting Stealth Eagles.
Yes, dump the F-35, keep the F-22 (add more) and bring back the F-14 Tomcats for the carriers (with enhanced avionics, etc.) They can be recreated. There are still plenty of airframes around to reverse engineer it. There's still a pretty good one left on display at the Smithsonian Museum's Nation Air and Space Museum in Virginia.
I’m afraid the new Russian T50 is going to walk all over the F35 and it’s going to do it for a significantly lower price than an F35. This will kill the F35 program and, hopefully, resurrect the F22 which I believe is the real air superiority vehicle that America requires.
The A10 is the only useful airplane for warfighting of any of those mentioned in the article.
The rest of them are just overspeed and underpayload and serving no apparent and obvious use.
And why exactly does the Air Force even exist seperate from the Army? Shouldn't the Army have its own air wing, just like the Navy? The Army would never have shut down the A-10 lines on its own.
As for air supremacy ... against whom? There is no threat out there in this regard that requires a F35 or an F22.
What the US really needs is not more of these supersonic fighters, but a replacement of the B52's with someting useful and modern.
Agreed, F-35 is relative crap and anybody who thinks one engine is acceptable needs to strap one on.
It’s all about money, screw principles and what is right. Lockheed makes more money on the F-35 so they lobbied to kill their own airplane.
The F-35 is as dumb and useless as the F-111. The stats on the thing don’t look any better than an F/A-18.
Flame away, but this is just wrong on too many levels.
Big mistake not to have an a-10 equivalent. Slow fly and fast fly platforms are not aerodynamically interchangeable, much less the cost.
We have to look at the design philosophies. The F35 is a good business model which is being mismanaged by the government. The Eurofighter started bad but kept the business model and some improvements occured but it still is suffering from bad models.
The Russian T50 is as trustworthy a business as Putin is. I would not bet on it by a long shot.
No aircraft out there is ever on budget depending on how we look at it. Even 70s aircrafts of today are getting updates because the initial versions sucked. It’s like Microsoft Windows, it takes another model down the line to get it really right. We need to start cutting metal NOW.
The F35 was not designed to replace the F15. This is absolutely ridiculous. Unless they come up with a rework the way they had the idea with the F16XL, it will not happen.
The F22 had been combat certified. It proved itself to be highly lethal. The devlopment costs were already spent. and these a55holes killed it.
Well it should still be produced until 2011 when we’ve reached 187 (ha) aircraft.
Jack-of-all-Trades, master of none.
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