Posted on 03/16/2022 8:48:08 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The most expensive weapons program in the world is about to experience cuts in the upcoming U.S. Defense of Department (DoD) budget.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a trillion-dollar program to swap out nearly every fighter jet in the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, will experience procurement cuts under DoD's upcoming "Selected Acquisition Report" (SAR), according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with information about the weapon's program cost.
DoD is expected to order 61 F-35s in the next budget, 33 less than what was planned. The reduction comes as the F-35 program is expected to exceed $770 billion since its inception later this year, when the federal government's fiscal year begins on Oct. 1.
But the proposed slowdown in purchases may raise questions among lawmakers, Lockheed investors and overseas customers about a lessening of the U.S. commitment to a program projected to cost $398 billion in development and acquisition plus an additional $1.2 trillion to operate and maintain the fleet over 66 years. The people familiar with the budget plan asked not to be identified in advance of the budget release in the coming weeks. -Bloomberg
Once the SAR is made public, the DoD will explain the reduction in F-35 orders.
The rationale for the reduction won't be officially explained until the proposed Pentagon budget is made public. But the request comes as negotiations with Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed over the next F-35 contract -- for about 400 planes -- are going slower than anticipated. And F-35s remain hobbled by flawed execution of a crucial upgrade of their software and hardware capabilities that's estimated to cost $14 billion. - Bloomberg
Lockheed shares tumbled 6.1% on today's news, reversing some of the gains after Russia invaded Ukraine last month.
The stealth fighter has been plagued with mounting costs after all sorts of flaws have been discovered. Robert Behler, the Pentagon's independent weapons tester, told Bloomberg in early 2021 the jet has 871 software and hardware flaws that could affect combat operations. It could cost billions to fix these flaws.
The people said the DoD would increase orders for non-stealthy F-15EX Eagle II fighter jets. The F-15s were initially introduced in 1976 but have since been completely upgraded, with the possible capabilities of carrying hypersonic missiles.
A person familiar with the SAR said the rationale for purchasing fewer F-35s shouldn't be viewed negatively as flaws are being worked out. The U.S. is expected to field 1,763 F-35s by the operational peak in 2036.
Thei thread should be verrrry interesting...😏
You know, we cut the Raptor because we were going to be coming
up with this new program, at least in part.
Now we’re going to slow walk this baby.
Next they’ll tell us they will cut some orders to go with the
new 6th generation or some such.
That’s how it seems to work.
When China and or Russia decide they’ve got high waders
that they are comfortable enough with, I sure hope we’ve
somehow patched together the forces to hold them off with.
The number cut is just about the number that Germany said they were going to be buying...
Lockheed deserves to die and should have a long time ago. The company of Kelly Johnson is long gone. Lockheed is nothing but a political animal that has forgotten how to manage construction of airplanes. They are oily to boot.
Take the drawing and give them to someone who deserves the opportunity and can perform.
Never mind that the 35 is a shill of an airplane.
I don’t know if this is correct but I heard that Lockheed Martin has almost as many lawyers as engineers on their payroll. I worked on the Zumwalt Program for the Navy until I retired. Needless to say, I’m not impressed with them as a company.
Kelly Johnson and Glenn Martin are spinning in their graves.
And please tell the audience what happened to the Zumwalt Program for the Navy.
3 ships is a lot less than what? 24?
Ping.
The F35.
A chimera built by committee. Elephant snout. Zebra torso. Crocodile legs. Crow wings. Octopus tail.
The F-15 is like the B52, a platform just about at the apex of development, good for decades. It is a big monster of a fighter but it can do about anything.
Why? Pelosi explains government spending is good.
It’s junk, anyway.
So we’re back to the Obama policy of throwing money at every boondoggle under the sun while at the same time slashing military procurement which is actually needed.
This is one of the reasons that, unlike some others here, I’m not too hot on getting into WW3 under DEMOCRATS.
Just when we COULD get Putin’s attention by DOUBLING our F-35 production, we cut it nearly in half.
No different than Germany building pipeline after pipeline to Russia, shutting down its nukes (which will be finalized this year), and shutting down its coal plants (which they are rethinking, at least) - and then bitching when Russia doesn’t listen to them.
Do we REALLY want to get into WW3 under the command of THIS administration?
Lockheed always had its problems. I’m old enough to remember the L-1011 airliner fiasco that nearly put the company into bankruptcy. Then there was the Luftwaffe bribery scandal where several old Nazi Generals took money to buy a tricked-up interceptor (the F-104) and convert it to a fighter-bomber. Bribery AND lethal (to it’s pilots) aircraft. Off to the side you had Kelly Johnson’s Skunk Works that built hand-made aircraft for the CIA that did amazing cutting edge stuff. But the USAF wouldn’t touch their stuff until the F-117 Stealth Fighter.
Heck, go back to their P-38 fighter during WW2. I don’t think they ever got all the bugs out of that plane. It was the “F-35 of its Day”. They didn’t even solve some of the basic aerodynamic problems until the “L” model when the plane was basically surplus-to-needs after the cheaper and more effective P-51D largely replaced it in squadron service.
I happen to think that many of the problems that you keep reading about with the F-35 were solved years ago, but keep getting regurgitated by the so-called ‘experts’. However, there’s no denying that Lockheed operates more like a government arsenal rather than a normal commercial aviation company.
Several years after the Challenger incident and subsequent return to flight NASA asked Lockheed if they really wanted to maintain the Shuttle Operations Contract or did they want to give it up, all due to a number of issues. Lockheed and Rockwell formed United Space Alliance. Boeing bought out Rockwell. Boeing had the Space Station Contract. MsDonnell Douglas had the Payload Ground Operations Contract. This left EG&G with the Base Operation Contract. In ‘97 McDonnell and Boeing merged into McDonnell-Boeing, keeping the Boeing N
name (recognition) and using the Rocket Circling the Earth MD logo. Now Boeing had Space Station Contract, Payloads Contract, and half the Shuttle Ops contract. This close to what Nasa wanted, one prime contractor for the Shuttle program. This did not bring about the desired changes for several reasons. I decided to leave soon after this as it soon became evident that focus was being lost. It became apparent to me the program was headed for another disaster. The program was unweildy. NASA was forced from an oversight position to an “insight” position with its contactors. No real change was made as ther were still three contracts, each staffed by the former corporate employees. Lockheed, half of USA, continued in its intransigent ways. No real change. I was actually suprised that it took as long as it did for Columbia to happen. It was to the point that the government was shoestringing the program and you can’t do that in spaceflight ops.
Actually Kelly Johnson was a big part of the problem. The guy established Lockheed as the best in technological excellence but he was a totally political player who really knew the backroom corruption game. Lockheed can do nothing cheaply and they are more than happy to inflate the cost using payoffs to the families of decision makers to grease the skids. Trump cut the cost of the F-35 by about 20 million per ship set and much of that came out pockets of grifting parasites in Washington and their cronies . That said, F-35 is an excellent aircraft that is really a 5th Gen airframe with near 6th Gen digital flight systems architecture that are generally open system and platform independent. Airframes are relatively easy but the systems are hard. The rapid development of the new 6 th Gen F-22 replacement got done so quickly in part because it leveraged aspects the F-35 investment. Democrats in Congress used the existence of F-35 to cancel the F-22 by falsely claiming that the F-35 was something it could never be - a replacement for the F-22. Ironically, the F-35 pioneering technology developments in some ways enabled the rapid development of a true 6th Gen F-22 replacement that meets current needs
Manned aerial combat vehicles will always have a poorer weight to thrust ratio and more limited maneuverability compared with unmanned aerial combat vehicles.
“When China and or Russia decide they’ve got high waders
that they are comfortable enough with, I sure hope we’ve
somehow patched together the forces to hold them off with.”
Not with Democrats controlling government.
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