F-35 Cancelled, then what ?

[SpazSinbad]

Buddy Spare Me an $85 Million in 2020 (or $75 Mil Today)

F-35 – ‘cautiously optimistic’ at the tipping point for programme 20 Jun 2013

"F-35 – turned a corner? (Lockheed Martin)
“We’re not declaring victory just yet” said Lockheed Martin’s VP Steve O’Bryan of the new “cautiously optimistic” (as described by Pentagon procurement chief) outlook that infuses the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter project. However it was clear in a presentation to the aviation media at Le Bourget that things were now starting to go in the troubled fighters direction – the good news said O’Bryan meant the programme was at ‘a tipping point’. With 65 F-35s now flying, flight testing is ramping up quickly, with 50% of all flight tests done in the past 12 months.

In addition, both the US Government and the GAO had confirmed that concurrency was starting to pay off – and the flyaway cost (including engines) was dropping. In 2020 the US Government estimates that a F-35 will cost some $85m each or less than half of the 2009 initial examples cost. Adjusted to today’s dollars the 2020 price would be $75m each.

However, O’Bryan was frank in admitting that challenges still persist – especially in the software. The F-35 computer software has around 8.6 million lines of code (in comparison an F-22 has around 2 million). While 88% of the code is now flying, the remaining 12% is the most difficult part, explained O’Bryan as it integrates existing simpler functions and capabilities together into a whole."

Paris Air Show 2013 - Day 2 | News | The Royal Aeronautical Society