The F-35 thread, Mk II

[Hot 'n' High]

Originally Posted by gums

Salute! All here from the U.K, and other places must unnerstan the polyticks from one persuasion or the other that wish to use the proles' tax money for their special projects......

Oh, agreed there gums!!!! Seen many "pet projects" supported by VSOs which have ultimately failed - but not before said VSOs have become Sir VVSOs! And the same, no doubt in Polyticks - love that connotation by the way!!!

I just don't have access to actual supportability cost figures which, of course, need to be factored as, while one can compare support costs for A/C "A" vs A/C "B", if "B" happens to be far more capable than "A" and can do much of what "C" can do ...... well, it's hard to read across in a meaningful way. Just our decreased force size means that any problems (for whatever reason) during rollouts has much greater impact overall. That's my only point really.

WRT mission criticality, and what constitutes a "S" asset, I'm no longer party to those games and, here in the UK, the F35 is "early days". But if ALIS is as broke as suggested, that won't help the hangar rats (my last but one Contract was back in that world so I can "squeak" with the best!) get the jets out the door by 0630. And the MF704 was "well used" to cover the "broken cover over a certain switch" scenario in other Fleets. And, in times of war, things do happen. But, in peace time, as you say, figures can be manipulated playing games - just I'm not so convinced to date of that happening here in the UK.

Indeed, also here in the UK, it seems difficult to get a commitment as to how many more F35 the UK will buy from anyone I/C ..... so only time will tell. Here I suspect it is more down to real ££££s per frame + support costs ...... as well as changing priorities such as Tempest. So we have our own brand of Polyticks at play!!!!!

But, as you say, "We shall see..........". Let's just hope for the folks on the Front Line, they can get on with with the job in hand safely. And, hopefully, what decisions are made at the top of the tree are for the right reasons - not just to score points or whatever. Fingers crossed, eh!!!!

Cheers, H 'n' H