Posted on 04/03/2021 6:01:02 AM PDT by Kaslin
Will always need manned fighters but the real action is with stealthy, lethal drones.
Story needs a minor edit.
Try ' Rep. Adam Smith (D-Boeing)
Boeing? Interesting.
<< “the F-35 is the most expensive weapon in history, with a projected lifetime cost of $1.7 trillion. That’s more than Russia’s GDP, all spent on a single-seat plane.” >>
All for a rotten platform. Perfect representation of modern America.
So what is the F 35 capable of doing?
If Trump didn’t kill it why did we keep going with it?
Isn’t it operational now?
I would argue that ‘smart-drones’ by 2030...will be the only way to wage air warfare. The B-52s and F-15s might be still around to stage launches of cruise missiles or long-range AS-missiles. Manned fighters probably have a decade before technology deems them of marginal value.
Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II
Looks like this might be a case of my crony capitalists against your crony capitalists.
I hate to agree with a Democrat but..
Waiting for all the self-declared expert fighter pilots on FreeRepublic now to chime in on something they know nothing about.
Again, just going by what my fighter jock friends tell me, but they are highly impressed with this plane.
I can see Drones in the arsenal.
I can’t see them as the only platform for war.
The Problem with the accounting is that the F-35 isn’t one plane and all those different planes were never going to be compatible within one airframe. It was simply too many requirements to ever be effectively built into one aircraft. It’s only competition, the XF-23, recognized and this and said as much in the initial design and bid phase of the contract. That they have come as close as they have within the project limitations is something else, and they still have no less than three variants.
The F-35 was supposed to be a fighter that we would sell to nations we were not willing to ever sell the F-22. That slot has somewhat been filled by the F-16X.
Overall the F-35 is a good example of allowing people that have no aviation or aviation engineering experience design an aircraft because their donors all needed a piece of the pie.
STFU, Peter Mihalick.
Bellview - Redmond area. He knows where his bread is buttered. There’s a reason the Air Force is getting Boeing tankers with all the issues that have cropped up there rather than the proven Airbus design.
At least he’s honorable enough to dance with the one that brought him to the party. Most of the Washington politicians lack that integrity.
It’s a very capable 5th gen. plane! New fighter platforms will have growing pains but the F15’s and 16’s are growing old.
The F22 should have been fully produced, but the 35 is formidable. Democrats hate the military.
Back in 1993 the aircraft envisioned under the JAST program was going to be the most expensive aircraft ever built. As I recall the estimated life cycle cost was projected to be $60 billion.
As I recall there was a competing plane (by a competing manufacturer) that looked like a better choice (and less complex) than the F-35. 60 Minutes even did a story about the competition at the time.
50 years? That thing is already getting passed by in electronics. That would be like still flying tactical jets built in 1971. You’re blowing smoked for the short legged moonpig.
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