Posted on 07/18/2022 1:02:50 PM PDT by entropy12
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Department of Defense is nearing an agreement with Lockheed Martin Corp (NYSE:LMT) for around 375 F-35 fighter jets over three years, three sources said on Monday, amid expectations of a price increase for the most common version of the jet due to lower quantities and inflation.
The first F-35A cost $221 million when it came off the production line in 2007. Since then, production quantities and know-how have increased, helping the price of the stealthy fifth-generation fighter fall to $79 million as it gained buyers.
The handshake agreement would come as the aviation industry gathered for the return of the Farnborough Airshow, aiming for a display of confidence after the devastation of COVID-19, even though the only records likely to be broken at the event in southeast England are for sweltering temperatures.
Amid the pandemic, Lockheed began to foreshadow that the price of the jet could rise as economies of scale diminished and supply chains stumbled. A pre-pandemic forecast for this three-year buy showed around 485 jets could be included, but the 22% volume decrease would certainly impact overall cost of the F-35A, the most common version of the jet.
A Pentagon previous three-year "block buy," signed in 2019, was for 478 F-35 fighter jets, allowing Lockheed to buy larger quantities of components to reduce costs by about 8%, to $34 billion, versus negotiating annual contracts.
Fauci plans to retire by end of U.S. President Biden's term
SO instead of sending $65 Billion to corrupt Ukraine, our military could have purchased 3 times as many F-35’s.
Oh well, the national debt can continue growing until we max out our credit card.
Must be nice to be the Chair Force.
Phew what a relief. I was very concerned about the stockholders of Lockheed Martin for a second .
....these new variants of the F-35 only [sic] cost some $79 million...? geeeshhhh; such a deal....!! a fully-equipped World War 2 North American P-51 Mustang cost some $50,000 and the Block 30 F-16s I used to work on cost some $30 million each when they were purchased back in U.S. Fiscal Year 1986 .....I wonder how many retired multi-star generals and admirals work for these defense contractors now...?
Sell Taiwan 100 on lend lease, another 100 for Japan and South Korea each, and 200 for Poland, all on lend lease. Also India if they play ball and stop playing footsie with Rissia, China and Iran.
30 mil in 86 would be 81 mil today using the “standard” inflation calculator
That is half the cost of the military hardware the idiot Biden left in Afghanistan. That will stand forever as one of the most stupid, most incompetent decision a United States president will ever make. The disastrous consequences of that decision by that one fool, and allowed to happen by countless other fools, will reverberate throughout history for the next thirty years, if not longer.
Too bad everyone not good enough to get in has to slam us.
You misspelled “treasonous”. There was nothing stupid or incompetent about it. He looked for a way to arm America’s enemies and he found one.
They should have called Lockheed on Feb. 24 and inked the deal on Feb 25, basically matching what Carter/Reagan did after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Not doing it until now removes any linkage to Ukraine.
Building up the military is an excellent way to send a message to Russia regarding Ukraine. The other excellent way, again what Carter/Reagan did, would be to drill, baby, drill.
Obviously drilling, or expanding US energy production in any form for that matter, is off the table, and this order for planes likely would have occurred Ukraine or not.
So, better late than never, but means little to nothing regarding Ukraine.
“30 mil in 86 would be 81 mil today using the “standard” inflation calculator”
On top of that, I would also back out economic growth since then, to get the relative ‘pain’ of the two purchases.
And considering what the world is devolving into, the order SHOULD have been for 10 times the amount of planes.
Yes. But, the deep state/DC elites first had to launch a full-on assault in Ukraine to gin up war rhetoric. It took a few years to goad Russia into making a move.
All part of the master plan. We get to enjoy the show and pay the price.
Way to go, Brandon.
That information is vital to determine how effective the program truly is. Luckily, other federal agencies provided some of that information. The Government Accountability Office included them in a July 2021 report. The GAO found that the entire F-35 fleet averaged a full mission capable rate of 39% in 2020, which was an improvement from the 32% the year before. The Air Force’s F-35A variant performed the best with a fleet average of 54% that year, a rate of performance that is still far below the 80% mission capable rate needed for an effective aircraft fleet (and even significantly below the program’s low 65% availability standard). The Marine Corps’ fleet of short takeoff and landing F-35Bs and the Navy’s fleet of F-35Cs, which are tailored for use on aircraft carriers, lag far behind. The F-35B fleet’s full mission capable rate got worse between 2019 and 2020, dropping from 23% to 15%. The F-35C fleet showed some improvement during that period, but that is not saying much. That fleet’s rate went from 6.4% to 6.8%.
The rest is equally eye-opening.
How many members of Congress with advance knowledge of this deal bought stock in Lockheed Martin stock?
Yep, the bells and whistles don’t help with reliability.
So, buying 3 times the planned number will help a lot (we’re done with developing new weapons, so that’s off the table). Buying 10 times the planned number, of course, would actually give us a bit of offensive capability.
...of course that all presupposes that Russia will sell us the Titanium and China will sell us the chips and rare earths...and God only knows what other components we need our enemies to supply.
"F-35 Program Stagnated in 2021 but DOD Testing Office Hiding Full Extent of Problem"
Exactly. That is why congress critters become very rich longer they stay in congress.
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