Good to hear that. Especially while Russia struggles to sell and maintain their hardware (Sikhoi less so than MiG)
Russian fighter jets worse than those of USA and Europe? - Pravda, May 25, 2009
Lockheed is still making money hand over fist on JSF F-35, but Raptors are essential.
Lockheed’s F-35 ‘Program Killer’ May Double Sales - BL, June 17. 2009
The U.S. and eight partner nations already plan to buy more than 3,000 of the warplanes, and with potential exports to countries including Israel, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Finland and Spain the total could “easily” reach 6,000, Brigadier General David Heinz, the top Pentagon official for the F-35, said today. ..... U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ pledge in April to speed domestic F-35 purchases will give confidence to foreign buyers, both among the eight current partners and beyond. Israel and Singapore, which had F-35 security cooperation pacts yet weren’t full partners in the program, have begun talks with the U.S. government that could lead them to join, Crowley said. Government talks have also begun on possible F-35 sales with Finland, Spain, South Korea and Japan, he said. One Survivor “It’s entirely possible that by 2020 there will be only one surviving western fighter plane,” Richard Aboulafia, an analyst with Fairfax, Virginia-based Teal. “The F-35 is designed to do what the F-16 almost did: drive competing manufacturers out of the market.” ..... Lockheed Martin Corp., the world’s largest defense company, may double sales of its new F-35 fighter jet in a surge of contracts that could squeeze competitors including Boeing Co. and Saab AB out of the market.