Taken from Richard Beedal's excellent website...
In practice its unlikely that the F-35 target unit costs will be fully met, for example the GAO estimates they will be exceeded by 47-51%, depending on the variant. The CBO believes that the likely unit procurement costs are $65 million for the CTOL version and about $77 million for the other two.
Therefore there is no savings in the unit cost of the CATOBAR Variant of JSF (Apart from maybe the simplification of the airframe due to the lack of fan). And the cost of CVF can only go up with the added cat and trap equipt. Therefore where are these spends going to be clawed back? Commonality of Airframe and support of JCA and FOAS would be a good start. The RAF opting for the 'A' variant would certainly go a long way to streamlining support and training. but over the lifespan of CVF/JSF would the figures even out. Another option would to be to pull out of JCA altogether. The only viable alternatives being Rafale (Unit Cost $70 Million) or more attractively F/18 Super Hornet (Unit cost $48 Million) and if the UK were to go down the E2C route then surely the Hornet would be a far more attractive proposition (Especially to the Bean Counters)
Al
Guys, I\'m ex-light blue with much contact with the dark blue throughout my career of nearly 40 years. I suggest this is the place to put our differences aside when discussing such serious topics as the future effectiveness of our Armed Forces - attitudes such as those displayed by the likes of Sharkey Ward belong in the dark ages
FJJP - Nicely put down before it started (i\'m getting a bit fed up with it myself) But BTW, Sharkey\'s problems were not with his fellow light blue pilots (in the main) but were with the RAF Hierarchy treating him like sh1t on various occasions. (i\'ve read the book 3 times - absolutely fascinating! - I know i\'m a sad g1t )
