Posted on 06/29/2016 8:56:34 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
A New York Times newspaper article describes a beleaguered American fighter program enduring delays, escalating costs, and technical problems. Another article about the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter no doubt, right? Nope. It's an article from 1977 about the F-16 Fighting Falcon.
The F-16 was the original multinational fighter. Developed by the United States with Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway as partners, the fighter was designed to be an agile, lightweight, daytime fighter to replace aging fighters such as the F-5 Freedom Fighter and the F-104 Starfighter. At $6,091,000 per unit—$27.1 million when adjusted for inflation—it was also supposed to be inexpensive.
Many of the F-16's past problems are mirror images of the issues we see in the F-35. According to the article, the Air Force expected the F-16's research and development costs rose by some $7 billion to reach $13.8 billion by 1986. Adjusted for inflation, that's $54.7 billion in today's dollars. F-35 R&D costs, on the other hand, are estimated at $107 billion dollars to date.
Like the F-35, the F-16's problems arose from technological issues and design challenges. The fly-by-wire mechanism of the F-16, in which an aerodynamically unstable but highly maneuverable aircraft was tamed by computers to keep it flying, was an expensive problem that was eventually solved. Like the F-35, the F-16 had problems with its engine and also had to be modified to placate U.S. allies who wanted a fighter capable of air-to-ground missions, a real multi-role fighter.
Still, as similar as the problems between these two planes are, the F-35's problems are much more intense. The F-35 was originally slated to cost $50 million apiece—nearly twice the original cost of the F-16 at today's prices—but the three versions of the plane currently run anywhere from $112 to $120 million each. The F-16 encountered months of delays, but the F-35 A/B/C models will, on average, be delayed half a decade.
Yes, America and her allies have been down this road before, but this time it is a lot rockier.
The USAF considered it so inferior to the F-15 in concept (single engined, lightweight, less payload carrying capability) that they considered it a stopgap or supplemental fighter. F-16 squadrons were supposed to die while holding an enemy air fleet at bay until the F-15s could come in and save them, like the cavalry in a movie. The fighter mafia mocked the F-16 by calling it a "lawn dart".
The F-35 is conceived to replace a variety of first line airplanes, the F-16, F/A-18 and A-10 in this country as well as several european airplanes like the Tornado for example. The F-35 is also designed to compete and maintain an edge in the modern air battlefield environment.
It has more advanced elements than any current US design, even the F-22, does in battlefield communications networking. It uses a helmet cueing system that the the F-15, F-16 and F-22 don't have (the F/A-18 does now) where the pilot looks at the target rather than points the plane at the target. It gives it's pilot 360 degree visibility and unprecidented situational awareness. The Pilot can literally visualize targets underneath the airplane, a blind spot for all conventional airplanes up to now...
Finally,it is designed from the ground up to be stealthy, survivable and lethal. All elements any pilot would love to have in a combat environment. With all that capability, it is coupled with the most capable analytical data processing system available, a pilot.
Drones go where they are pointed do what they are told to do and are controlled by someone half a hemisphere away. There are time delays between drone sensor acquisition, data linking, remote situational interpretation, response uplinking, the drone reacting to the response and even that reaction is based on the signal at the start of the process, not real time.
That is why drones are used as targets.
Thew F-16 is far superior to the F-35 today... it’s actually flying for one and doesn’t need another $20B to $100B software fix just to solve the F-35 Autonomic Logistics Information System.
Bookmark.
One of the most prolifically distributed and desired fighters in the world. The big one I remember is hydraulic problems on the F-14 Tomcat.
President Trump will bring it back. That's why they're holding on to the tooling." I hope you are right, And I hope he brings back the A-10 as well.
Originally designed as a day VFR fighter.
where?
There were problems with the 16s fly by wire systems resulting in some early ones going pointy side down. That is how it came to be known as a “lawn dart”. I am no fan of the 35 but I’m sure it’ll eventually be a great plane. Strap enough cash to the hard points and you can fix anything.
Actually, “Lawn Dart” was a result of many crashes, and most all crashes in the early years were the result of I-GLOC.
Back in the 80’s, the joke was;
Question: “What’s the quickest way I can get a piece of an F-16?”
Answer: Buy an acre of land in Germany.
Gen 6 technology.
Integrated networking. . .
“Drones go where they are pointed do what they are told to do and are controlled by someone half a hemisphere away. “
Yes, but not all are flown by pilots, some are capable of autonomous operation (change route due to threats and weather).
Autonomous operation does not equate to intelligent operation.
True.
the same place they keep the A-10 tooling...
Republic of Fairchild is no longer in business.
Seriously, where would the tooling be for the A-10 and F-32
it's gone, that was my whole point... 8^)
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