PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - F-35 Cancelled, then what ?
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Old 19th Jun 2018, 18:24
  #11414 (permalink)  
Turbine D
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Middle America
Age: 84
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Brat,
George, your post above is nothing BUT a huge insulting whinge and whine.
I think you are having trouble identifying successful aircraft programs from not so successful aircraft programs. Successful programs deliver excellent products as advertised and on time. Not so successful programs deliver marginal products late.

From history for example, there were two successful programs that developed aircraft in a timely manner and maintained their technological advantages against adversaries of their day.

The P-51 Mustang was designed in 1940 and 102 days later the first aircraft flew. By 1943, it was flying bomber escort missions over Germany and in early 1944 was flying combat missions. Over 15,000 were produced at a unit cost of $50,985 in 1945 $$$s. It was used in the early stages of the Korean War which started in 1950, until the F-86 took over. This is a definition of a successful program. Had the P-51 been developed on the F-35 timeline, it wouldn’t have been ready for combat until after the Korean War was over besides being obsoleted by the F-86 Sabre.

In 1945, design of what was to become the F-86 commenced. The first flight occurred in 1947 and the USAF had them in inventory starting in 1949 and early 1950. It became the primary combat fighter in the Korean War. 9,800 F-86 combat jets were produced at a typical unit cost of $219,460. It was the first American aircraft to have swept wings, an axial-flow J47 jet engine and the ability to break the sound barrier. Had the F-86 been developed on the F-35 timeline, it might have been good to go for the Vietnam War. These were two successful programs that developed aircraft in a timely manner, maintaining their technological advantages against adversaries of their day, there were others as well.

The F-16 & F-15 programs are good examples of more modern day successful programs. Sadly, the F-35 program is not a successful program, much like the F-111 program wasn’t that resulted in only 563 of all the variants being built and none for the USN that was one half the original program intent.

Whatever the numerous technological advantages being claimed for the F-35 some have been compromised by excessive time to the marketplace, e.g., real combat readiness with all the bells and whistles working as they should be. Excessive time always indicates excessive costs, failure to have had a robust risk management program to sort out a reliable technology path and a meaningful timeline forward.

It certainly is interesting to see four new F-35 aircraft sitting in the UK supposedly on the way to Israel, gifted by the US to Israel. The US gives a military support package to Israel that provides an average of $3.8 billion a year over the next decade, already the largest recipient of American aid, including financing for missile defense systems that defend against rockets fired by nearby adversary groups. Under a previous 10-year agreement that expires in 2018, the United States provided about $3 billion a year, but lately Congress has added up to $500 million a year for missile defense. Also, the Israelis can now use some of the money provided to buy military items from their own military industries, something that wasn't permitted in past agreements. The Israelis will no doubt put some of this money to use improving the capability of their new F-35s. They are extremely good at improvement technologies and they will accomplish it at a speed far greater than LM could or will. The Israeli Air Force will have the most advance F-35s long before anyone else and we might see how good they perform in actual combat...
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