Each F-35B costs $150 million, compared with $24 million for a Harrier. | Charles Hoskinson/POLITICO
Posted on 08/04/2011 9:02:14 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Each F-35B costs $150 million, compared with $24 million for a Harrier. | Charles Hoskinson/POLITICO
The Harrier and F-35B are mission unique aircraft. They enable organic air support without the use of super carriers and their attending battle groups. The F-35 is more survivable for the pilot. You could buy 10 F-35s for what the state of Arizona alone spends on illegal aliens.
Uprecedented? You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
It’s very pricey, but won’t you be able to at least save some money by not having to build the larger aircraft carriers necessary to handle conventional aircraft? Or perhaps it is expecting too much to have an aircraft that has STOL capability and is stealthy as well?
I’m pretty sure than the F-35B is quite a bit faster than an Edsel.
Buy more F22’s. =.=
You own alot of Lackheed-Martin stock?
I think that we will always need the carriers. How else would we transport hundreds of these planes to a conflict area?
None. But I do live with the Harriers in Yuma.
The cost of the AV-8B was over $30 million per and the Harrier Re-Manufacturing program ("ReMan" which was done in the 90's) added approximately $33 million to the cost of each aircraft.
As did I on may last ship(USS New Orleans LPH-11).
ping
1) Build shipping containers big enough to hold an F-35, and which have top doors.
2) Load the F-35s in their containers onto cargo ships.
3) At destination, open the top doors, let F-35 fly out under its own power.
4) Push empty containers over the side. Underneath are containers with fuel, ammo, and parts.
Alternately, every destroyer with a helicopter hanger could accommodate an F-35.
Also back in the 80s a new F-16 was about $20M, you’d pay almost 4 times that today.
The unit cost depends greatly on production cost. The less of them is produced, the more it costs.
This is basicaly what you get when the government makes bad promises, you can change the cost of the product by a single vote.
Also, given the debt ballooning today, this price is a drop in the bucket as of this writing. The true embarassment as a result is the inflation. The more we delay the more it will cost and the more the company will ask delivery delays to offset inflation.
So, again, this aircraft, imo, as of this writing, has never been cheaper.
Do you realize how easy it is to sink a cargo ship? Not only that, you will need the same crews to maintain the ship as well as the planes. Then what do you do about maintenance, re-arming, etc?
Harrier=Nugget Killer.
They sound weird and look weird. Living where I do, I've heard everything from the Hustler to B-52s to aluminum overcast. And phantoms. Lots of F-4 phantoms. And that's what it reminds me of... An F-4. Looks weird, sounds weird, some pilots love it.
Meh....
Give it to the Marines. If anybody can hack a weapons system out of that committee designed AC, Marines can do it.
/johnny
Better looking too.
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