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
F-35B: Marvel or Edsel with wings?
By: Charles Hoskinson
August 3, 2011 10:29 PM EDT
PATUXENT RIVER NAVAL AIR STATION, Md. — The F-35B is a supersonic stealth fighter jet with an unprecedented new twist: It can take off and land like a helicopter.
That’s what makes the airplane a crucial part of the strategy to modernize the Marine Corps as it reverts to its traditional mission as America’s go-anywhere, quick-reaction force after 10 years of ground combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. It’s also what makes the airplane a vastly more expensive option and has caused the technical problems and development delays that led to the program being put on probation earlier this year by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Marine Corps officials demonstrated the F-35B for reporters on Friday, hoping to at least raise the question of whether the plane is worth the cost and effort when budget-cutters are looking hard at Pentagon programs that might not make the grade.
“Is the juice worth the squeeze? We’ve got to have that discussion at the most senior level of our country,” said Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos, who calls himself “a realistic cheerleader” for the program.
The Marines want to buy 340 of the planes to replace the AV-8B Harriers that first went into service 25 years ago. Each F-35B costs $150 million, compared with $24 million for a Harrier.
The F-35B’s test pilots said it’s worth it — and then some.
“It’s really quite a leap in technology,” said Lt. Col. Matt Taylor. “It flies like an airplane on a perfect day, every day.”
“The airplane hands down is much more stable than the Harrier was,” added Lt. Col. Fred Schenk, a former Harrier pilot who flew Friday’s demonstration, which included a short takeoff, a low-speed pass at 60 knots and a vertical landing.
But the co-chairmen of the debt commission appointed by President Barack Obama — Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson — concluded late last year that the F-35B wasn’t worth the cost and recommended the Pentagon cancel it, saving $41 billion on an estimated purchase of 311 planes.
Aside from the technical problems and cost overruns, they noted that the plane’s sophisticated capabilities were not as relevant in current combat conditions. Also, development of the Marine version of the F-35 was a drag on the rest of the Joint Strike Fighter program, they said.
The Pentagon plans to buy more than 2,400 F-35s for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps for about $380 billion. But estimated total operating costs of up to $1 trillion have outraged lawmakers and put the entire JSF program on the list of possible targets for budget cuts.
“Be assured, the cost of the jets are coming down,” Lockheed Martin chief executive Bob Stevens said in response to congressional critics. He noted that the $1 trillion estimate was comparable to any other major replacement of an entire category of equipment.
Meanwhile, the problems that led Gates to put the F-35B on probation are directly related to what makes it so special: a unique lift system that diverts jet exhaust, allowing it to take off and land vertically while still flying at supersonic speeds and maintaining a stealthy profile to enemy radar systems.
Taylor also noted that the coating that makes the plane hard to spot could deteriorate with exposure to the environment at sea. “We haven’t had a stealthy airplane aboard a ship before, so we need to pay attention to that,” he said. “We do expect to see things.”
Officials said the technical problems are slowly being worked out, with an eye toward the first shipboard tests aboard the amphibious carrier USS Wasp in late October or early November. Friday’s test flight was the 120th time this year an F-35B has made a vertical landing, versus 10 all of last year.
The Pentagon’s F-35 program manager, Vice Adm. David Venlet, said current testing is focusing on improvements to the lift system’s drive shaft and clutch to reduce heating and improvements to make inlet doors stronger, eliminating a potential safety risk.
“We would like to demonstrate each of these successfully in flight tests” before moving forward, Venlet said.
The issues with the F-35B resemble those surrounding the V-22 Osprey, a unique tilt-rotor aircraft that was another game-changing technological leap. Each $66.6 million Osprey costs $10,600 per flight hour to operate — more than the helicopter it was designed to replace — but can fly twice as fast, go four times as far and carry twice as many Marines into combat.
The Osprey also has been a frequent target for cuts — like the F-35B, the debt commission co-chairmen recommended it be canceled.
There’s an old adage among pilots that “training manuals are written in blood,” and that’s certainly true for the V-22. The aircraft’s technology was so new that 30 people died during more than 20 years of development before the Marines were able to decipher its aerodynamic idiosyncrasies and fix technical and maintenance issues.
Fixing those problems has given the V-22 a better safety record, and it’s now flying combat missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, where an Osprey from the USS Kearsarge rescued a downed Air Force pilot last March.
“The V-22 right now has an enormously successful safety record,” Amos said.
Amos — a former F-18 pilot and the first Marine aviator to lead the Corps — said he’s optimistic the F-35B will also prove itself. He said the aircraft’s ability to operate aboard amphibious carriers and unimproved airstrips — or even small stretches of highway — would give the Marines a crucial air attack capability they don’t have now.
“There’s not a backup for this. There’s no Plan B,” he said. “To do the things this nation requires of its Marine Corps, we need this airplane.”
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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