JSF Tests Slips Again, Purchase To Be Slashed

Aviation Week and Space Technology ^ | 1/11/2011 | Amy Butler

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

As U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates puts the ailing F-35B short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing aircraft on life support and proposes another delay to the single-engine stealthy fighter’s testing, he is also pushing forward a broad savings agenda that will enhance several major aerospace programs.

For industry, the results are mixed. The most dramatic impact is on Lockheed Martin, which must turn around the F-35B within two years or expect its termination. Production would be cut by 124 aircraft through Fiscal 2016, limiting the company’s ability to reduce the near-term per-unit price and entice more international customers. Gates is also proposing termination of Raytheon’s Surface-Launched Amraam and General Dynamics’ Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle.

The outlook is not all bad for contractors, though. Gates proposes upgrading the U.S. Air Force’s F-15 fleet with new, active, electronically scanned array radars made by Raytheon, and Boeing can expect the Navy to buy 41 more Boeing F/A-18E/Fs to make up for aircraft cut from the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter buy profile. The United Launch Alliance also stands to gain at least some funding it has sought for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) rocket program. Gates says additional money will help stabilize the industrial base that supports these Atlas V and Delta IV launchers.

[CurlyDave]

Obama is going to disarm the US by budget cut...

[hattend]

SOP

Plan to build 1000 planes, cut back to 100 planes at same developement cost and bitch about the per unit price rise.

Then, cut the whole program because it costs too much.

Slow the F-35, build more F-22s