Right now it still looks like 2014, with delivery starting in late '14 to early '15. According to the budget, the Marines are slated to get 16 35B's and the Navy 4 35C's in 2010. For a look at the 2010 Aviation budget breakdown:
Posted on 06/22/2009 5:32:55 PM PDT by WhiteCastle
Defense: By a narrow margin, a House subcommittee has voted to keep open the F-22 Raptor production line. The future of American air dominance and the fate of the world's most capable fighter hang in the balance.On May 30, with North Korea huffing and puffing about nuclear war, the first of 12 high-tech U.S. F-22 Raptor fighter jets landed at Kadena Air Base on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa. It was just days after North Korea unnerved the region by detonating a nuclear device. There were reasons the F-22 was deployed to Japan. The stealthy, radar-evading fighter jet is quite simply the best aircraft of its kind in the world. It can slice through enemy air defenses and clear the skies of enemy planes virtually undetected. So why aren't we building more than we have?
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
Nice pics. ;-)
It is one helluva fighter.
By a narrow margin, a House subcommittee has voted to keep open the F-22 Raptor production line. The future of American air dominance and the fate of the world's most capable fighter hang in the balance. On May 30, with North Korea huffing and puffing about nuclear war, the first of 12 high-tech U.S. F-22 Raptor fighter jets landed at Kadena Air Base on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa. It was just days after North Korea unnerved the region by detonating a nuclear device. There were reasons the F-22 was deployed to Japan. The stealthy, radar-evading fighter jet is quite simply the best aircraft of its kind in the world. It can slice through enemy air defenses and clear the skies of enemy planes virtually undetected. So why aren't we building more than we have?
"Is that a trick question?"
The Navy and Marines I could see more as a starting basis for the F-35. So 2010 eh? I wonder if any prototypes have started carrier trials. Concentrating on the carrier aircraft first is always best, since it is easier to "de-carrier" an aircraft design than adapt a land-based aircraft design for carrier use. In the meanwhile they should continue to concentrate F-22 production on replacement for the F-15C.
Because air superioirty comes first and foremost.
The USAF, like many top-of-the-line air forces, has used air superiority fighters in aerial conflicts.
~2011.
But the F-35 Lightning II is too overengineered to be produced in bulk, unless it was license produced elsewhere, like BAe Systems, Alenia Aeronautica or Turkish Aerospace Industries.
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