Originally Posted by
gums
Salute!
Thanks, ORAC. I am not upset with those numbers.
We would have to look at the criteria for all the levels of "capability", huh?
For example, in a very simnple plane like the A-37, we would report 80% or a bit higher as fully mission capable. We would have been 100%, but our X-band beacon used for blind bombing was missing or inop. That doofer was tracked by a ground unit and was like a GCA. Some dude gave us left right and then "pickle" - Combat Sky Spot ( which we called Combat Sky Dump). A great war story surrounds Lima Site 85, which had one of the ground stations and allowed dumps over Hanoi when wx was piss poor. A "company" helo got an A2A kill on a AN2 there!!
Another unit on our plane that kept us from FMC was a broken encryption doofer -KY-28 or 38. We only used it for SAR when up in North VietNam where bad guys heard everything we ever said.
So the F-35 numbers look about right for this stage.
Gums sends...
"Production of the F-35 began in 2007 while development was in its early stages and before developmental flight testing had started. As a result of this concurrent development, the
357 aircraft delivered through 2018 will need retrofits to fix deficiencies and design issues found during testing.9 The program’s total estimated cost of concurrency is $1.4 billion.10 The program office plans
for over 500 aircraft to be procured by the time operational testing is completed. Until operational testing is complete, there is a risk that additional problems with the aircraft may be identified. As a result, the concurrency costs of retrofitting delivered aircraft could increase.."
Page 6 of GAO report ...