Originally Posted by
t43562
I read somewhere that SPEAR requires the Block 4 upgrade. Perhaps that is not true. Then I read that 1 upgrade costs millions. I see the Lockheed Martin business model now.....
I have see £22 million per airframe. Given the low total buy I can't see how it would make sense for another Tornado F.2 - Typhoon Tranche 1 2 seaters style RTP programme. Running a mixed fleet of Typhoons with several squadrons of Tranche 1s in AD or ACT roles makes sense but not IMHO doing with F-35s.
F-35s will be Block 4 from lot 15 in 2023 this coincides with the DAS swap - I think the statement below implies the Block 4 upgrades to the UKs earlier airframes will now happen.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) told Jane’s on 7 January that the UK has decided to fall in line with the wider F-35 programmatic effort to swap the current Northrop Grumman AN/AAQ-37 DAS with a new system to be developed by Raytheon. Previously, the UK government had said that no decision would be made until it understood the time and cost implications of the upgrade.
“All F-35 production aircraft produced from 2023, for all F-35 partner nations including the UK, will be fitted with a new DAS. There will be a retrofit programme to modify partner nation aircraft delivered before 2023 with the next-generation DAS,” an MoD spokesperson said.
Source:
https://www.janes.com/defence-news/n...35-das-upgrade
Regarding SPEAR requiring block 4:
Jane's Missiles and Rockets 18 January 2016
"Key Points
- The integration of Storm Shadow on the F-35B as part of UK follow-on development has been dropped
- The UK is looking to integrate the Meteor BVR air-to-air missile and the SPEAR Cap 3 stand-off precision guided weapon as part of Block 4"