F22 F35.
Posted on 08/02/2016 9:30:41 PM PDT by Enchante
Any idea what the price per plane is up to?
What have the Marines and Navy had to say about this F-35?
Hitting a few comments with one post:
“What happened to the F-22?”
The F-22 is a better airframe, with air-to-air capabilities far beyond the F-35. It’s the F-15 to the F-35’s F-16. Shutting down the production line was a mistake, and the AF is now admitting that 186 of them is too few. There is talk of reopening the production line, as well as upgrading a few components to the more modern F-35 level.
“Every one that is lost is 330 million bucks down the drain.”
No. See the next response. You are including sunk engineering costs which are not affected by a lost F-35.
“Any idea what the price per plane is up to?”
The flyaway cost of the F-35A (cost to manufacture a plane) is around $100 million as of now. The current F-16 is around $60 million without stealth or advanced sensors/electronics. What the F-35 provides over the F-16 is the ability to strike heavily defended targets with few or no losses, and to fire at enemy aircraft before the enemy knows they’re around.
“The joke of a gun goes operational in 2017!
180 rounds. 3 seconds of 25mm. And it cant be used yet.”
It was quite premature to declare the gun obsolete in the ‘60s. In 2016, if you’re fighting a modern adversary the gun is only there as an absolute last resort.
180 rounds of 25mm is probably enough to shoot down five enemy planes, if push comes to shove, given that the software assisted aiming should be extremely accurate.
ping
I thought we were hoping for a carrier jet? Like the F-22 with a better frame.
F22 F35.
Combat ready? Pfft. Tell me that when its actually been in combat. Until then, it’s an overpriced, overhyped fish head.
What’s the low altitude stall speed?
“180 rounds of 25mm is probably enough to shoot down five enemy planes, if push comes to shove, given that the software assisted aiming should be extremely accurate”
Huh? The gun is for ground support me thinks. In which case it is about 1000 thousand rounds short of an A-10. Of course in theory the F35 can take out missle defenses to allow it to go in for low altitude ground support whereas the Warthog needs to wait to go in while other assets do that.
It’s complicated, but what killed the F-22 (mostly) is the same thing that is killing the A-10 — the US can’t really afford single-mission aircraft anymore. Everything is multi-role. It’s a bit short-sighted, I know. Multi-role aircraft are a good idea in peacetime operations, and perhaps limited wars, but the minute you go into a full-blown slugging match the guy with enough air-superiority aircraft generally wins the day.
Recall that before the F-22 was terminated, they were playing with the idea of an FB-22. Trying to make a fighter bomber out of a pure air superiority platform with a relatively small internal weapons bay. “Oh, we’ll just hang the weapons on wing pylons!” Say ‘what’?
That said, while McCain hated the thing, the Air Force and its contractors screwed the pooch on this plane. Took 26 years to produce and was waaaaaaayyyyy over budget.
I like great military aircraft as much as the next guy, but this program was poorly managed in production and implementation. I suspect the Air Force got a spanking over this one.
Thank you. Most of the people that slam the F-35 don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. A quick search of YouTube is apparently very difficult.
“Huh? The gun is for ground support me thinks.”
The F-35 won’t be using its gun in the CAS role, except possibly in the case of the Marines, which is a gun pod not the internal cannon.
I believe the AF doctrine on CAS these days revolves around precision weapons. The troops provide GPS coordinates for the target, which are uploaded to overhead aircraft. Shortly thereafter, munitions arrive on target.
“In which case it is about 1000 thousand rounds short of an A-10.”
The Apache is a much better gun CAS platform than either - it’s low and slow. The A-10 has a pretty bad story on friendly fire incidents.
“Of course in theory the F35 can take out missle defenses to allow it to go in for low altitude ground support whereas the Warthog needs to wait to go in while other assets do that.”
Neither the F-35 or the A-10 can take out shoulder-launched missiles before the fact. The F-35 is fairly vulnerable to them, as stealth against IR is only minimally effective. The best defense is to remain at higher altitudes and use precision weapons.
God Rod ‘em from Space, it’s the only way to be sure.
I remember when the first "Joint Strike Fighter" flight sims hit the shelves at the software shops in the late 1990s. Published by a company that's now defunct and sold by retailers that are no longer in business.
Killed off? We have like 150 of them. Fielded and ready at bases all over. Yeah not as many as we wanted, but hardly ‘killed off’.
Greenish-grey is far more likely to be delivered than pink with purple polka-dots.
“Most of the people that slam the F-35 don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.”
Yeah it is pretty pathetic. They mostly regurgitate out of context lines from some leftist hit-piece article. They are the same morons that say ‘it is just a copy of an [random US plane]’ whenever a picture of a foreign aircraft is posted.
It's really short-sighted, especially when you consider that it's about time for another big war. (Though it may not be w/ us, it's a good idea to be prepared.)
There's an old saying: if you want peace, prepare for war
... and the converse is also true, if we prepare for peace then we weaken our ability to wage war.
Recall that before the F-22 was terminated, they were playing with the idea of an FB-22. Trying to make a fighter bomber out of a pure air superiority platform with a relatively small internal weapons bay. “Oh, we’ll just hang the weapons on wing pylons!” Say ‘what’?
I actually don't remember them saying anything about that... in any case it's a stupid idea.
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