Originally Posted by
t43562
At the very least it is possible to convert Gripens. From the point of view of the purchaser this is just one more option and a completely fair comparison. How smart to have such a strategy that you can upgrade one aircraft into another!
Since it involves new engines it would seem to be a pretty comprehensive upgrade. To me that suggests that new aircraft may not need to be all that much more - but who ever wants to pay even "a bit" more if they don't have to?
Since the numbers involved are not large (60) I think it is impressive that it can be done at a reasonable price - what is the average cost of the first 60 F-35s?
All aircraft are upgraded over their lifetimes. This is just normal Ops over the lifetime of a design.
I think this is an attempt to gild the Lilly re the "F35 is too expensive" argument..
We know the F35 has completely failed to be the affordable F16 replacement it was supposed to be.
It is not necessary to fake up figures to make it appear even worse than it really is, in fact it just makes your other more contentious arguments seem less reliable.
An upgrade is not a flyaway price. It does seem to by a serious capability increase, but to say it is cheap is a bit disingenuous.