Posted on 10/25/2018 8:33:21 AM PDT by Krosan
Belgium said on Thursday it had chosen Lockheed Martin’s F-35 stealth jets over the Eurofighter Typhoon to replace its aging F-16s in a 4 billion euro ($4.55 billion) deal, saying the decision came down to price.
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Belgium joins a list of other European NATO allies, including Britain, the Netherlands, Italy and Turkey, to take the American-made plane, which is also set to be the U.S. military’s main fighter aircraft for decades to come.
“We have landed! This government is investing heavily in defense. With the purchase of F-35A fighter planes ... we ensure your safety and that of our military,” Belgian Defence Minister Steven Vandeput said on Twitter during the news conference.
“The offer from the Americans was the best in all our seven evaluation criteria,” he later told reporters.
The jets, which can avoid detection and tracking by enemy radars or heat sensors, aim to offer NATO allies technological superiority with additional capabilities such as the ability to disrupt enemy communications networks and navigation signals.
Lockheed Martin said in a statement the pick makes Belgium the 13th country to choose the F-35, which comes in three variants - the F-35A conventional take-off and landing model, the F-35B, a short take-off or vertical landing version, and the F-35C, used aboard aircraft carriers.
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CHEAPER THAN PROJECTED
Prime Minister Charles Michel’s government said despite a strong desire to support European allies, the F-35 was cheaper for Belgium over the long term, coming in 600 million euros ($684 million) under what the government budgeted for.
The total price of the deal, including the jets, pilot training, hangars and upkeep until 2030 was worth 4 billion euros, Vandeput said, compared with the original budget of 4.6 billion euros.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Why does Belgium need jet fighters ?
[Why does Belgium need jet fighters ?]
Who cares! They’re buying these turds of a plane! Hopefully enough get bought that the US can get out of the contract!
The F-35 is not for everybody, and I'm not convinced that the F-35 is the right aircraft for Belgium, or for Canada for that matter.
Belgium should pick up some new Block 70 F-16s with AESA radar, and call it good.
Canada really should replace their Hornets with either Super Hornets or F-15Es.
Pretty amazing the F-35 is cheaper than the 4th generation Eurofighter Typhoon.
Wow, never thought I’d see the day when the F-35 won on PRICE! We’ve been hearing forever that it is the priciest fighter ever made and nobody would buy it because of the sky-high price.
The purchase price is 13% below their budget of €4.6 B. Amazing!
If they are riding along a large order the US has been placing for these then it might be cheaper.
We have about 300 in service on paper atm.
When development costs are factored into the price, yes. If they'll sell it to you for just the marginal cost of production in order to keep the production line going, the price goes way down.
There is a lot of misinformation and dishonest trashing of F-35 on the internet. People were even saying that it will never be built and the Russian PAK-FA/Su-57 is far superior.
At least now everyone can see that countries are lining up to buy the F-35s and the Russian plane doesn’t even have a single production model and their project is cancelled for all practical purposes.
There’s no way they are selling it at marginal cost. The price has to absorb development costs.
I actually feel much better atm with this platform now that its in operations not only in the US but in countries like Israel and such. Development was expensive and long as fuck, but now that we have it we have to use it.
I’ve been suspecting that for a long time. This is a very good sign. Interesting point about the Russian plane having no production models.
It’s hard to believe that somebody can make a military jet more overpriced than our own defense contractors.
The price to US DOD has to absorb development costs.
The price to outside customers just has to be over the marginal production costs, and low enough to underbid the competition. It’s called the market, and you either deliver a better product at a lower price than the competition, or you don’t get the sale.
I have been defending the F-35 here for years, so that somebody even asked me how the coffee tastes in the Lockheed’s headquarters (which I don’t know).
My (mostly) uneducated opinion is that the big winner here is the concept of having the same base model for airforce, carrier and STOVL and the innovative use of infosystems for the lifecycle management.
Grift is grift everywhere, but when your systematic approach is so much better then even the grift can’t take away the price edge.
The Turks getting F-35s, am I the only one who thinks that this is a bad idea?
So when the Muzzies take over Belgium, they’ll use them against us.
“The total price of the deal, including the jets, pilot training, hangars and upkeep until 2030 was worth 4 billion euros”
So Belgium paid $133.8M per jet and the extra package for these F-35As. The DoD pays $89M per jet, but I am not sure what their extra package contains.
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