Salute!

Gotta tellya, Wolf, that the F-35 is really loud, and having lived in a home near Hill (maybe 1.5 nm) when the Thuds were still there, the F-35 would be louder. Now, living maybe 2-3 nm from the Eglin rwy, you can tell the difference between the F-35 and all the others, even the F-22 that has two engines.

I do not think the mountains at Hill make much difference if you are west of the Wasatch range.

Gums sends...

The civvies around NAS LeMoore (A-7 base and then F-18 base in California) were up in arms about the F-35 showing up.
Of course the envirotwits tried to block it. Their complaint? Noise level.
(And TBH, I kind of see their point on that one. Freaking loud, the F-35 is).

Some good defense procurement news for once! The FY25 & FY26 forecasted procurement costs for the new B-21 Raider stealth bomber is coming in $1.9 billion under budget from what was expected in last year's budget.

Those funds could be reinvested into the program to buy more aircraft, or allocated to other priority programs like Sentinel ICBMs, which forms another leg of the nuclear triad.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....87244044da.png
​​​​​​​

Saw one of the first Aussie F-35s to arrive at Avalon airshow a few years back.
Had seen the F-16 at Farnborough previously - and was surprised at how loud the sound of freedom was from that little jet.
But the F-35 - something else again!
Not that I was even remotely complaining...

Little confused. Govt claims the program is cheaper than expected by $2B yet NG states:

(To the tune of $1.56 B)

I can see one being true, but not both.

No contradiction. They have a negotiated price for each lot and have previously stated that they expect to lose money on the first few lots as they gain experience on the line, with the production cost becoming lower and moving into profit later down the line. Same as has happened on other aircraft programmes.

The article is reporting that the AF are seeing the reported cost savings being identified and introduced earlier than they expected and so the price coming down faster than expected.

If that leads to additional orders then bulk buying of parts can lead to a beneficial further lowering of costs - as opposed to the opposite “death spiral” when problems in production lead to higher to higher prices and order cuts, which leads to higher prices etc etc…

By far the loudest single engine jet I can remember.

Louder than the Yak141 at the 1992 Farnborough Air Show, which set off dozens of car alarms as it hovered!

100 airframes and maybe something new bubbling in the future?
 

Interesting, they still sticking with 100 airframes but also having thoughts of something new,

https://www.airandspaceforces.com/ai...uEhXkIKSyTNKUP

cheers