Originally Posted by JSFfan
F-35A costs 10% more to operate than F-16 - The DEW Line
"This data was derived in cooperation with the US Air Force and the Department of Defense Cost Assessment & Program Evaluation Office (CAPE). Comparable baseline assumptions were used to evaluate relative operational costs between F-35 and legacy aircraft."
Yet again, you fail to understand.
The first issue here is that the F-35 comes within 10% of the F-16's cost in a specific set of conditions (A'stan, Libya, Russia, China?), so this is a kind of a cost/effectiveness amalgam, presented through $.
If we assume the F-35 is more capable than an F-16 as announced, then the JSF's actual flight hour is even costlier, by the magnitude of difference in capability and may well land where GAO and kbrockman said.
The second issue is that most nonUS operators that are supposed to field the F-35 will be mostly operating them in a low-threat and consequently high-cost environment, so it's difficult to justify JSF's procurement for those operators.
Although valiant, your efforts to 'defend' the JSF are misplaced, since no one's battling the JSF where you think they do.
Originally Posted by JSFfan
I don't care if it's 20 or 40k..
Obviously, but you must allow others to care, since at some point in life everyone needs to stop bringing their laundry to their moms and start taking care for themselves.