Posted on 03/12/2010 6:50:25 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
The price tag for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) has increased by more than 50 percent, crossing a threshold that will force Pentagon officials to justify the need for the program to Congress, Pentagon officials told a Senate panel on Thursday.
The price for one F-35 fighter jet in 2001 was estimated to be $50 million. Now the price tag has risen to between $80 million and $95 million per plane, calculated in 2002 constant dollars. In today’s dollars, one aircraft would cost an average of $112 million, according to Michael Sullivan, the director of the acquisition team at the Government Accountability Office.
Some of the first jets are expected to cost about $205 million apiece, the Pentagon’s acquisition chief, Ashton Carter, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday.
Pentagon officials walked senators through the cost increase: The Pentagon in 2001 estimated the cost of one F-35 at $50.2 million for an order of 2,852 jets. In 2007, the Pentagon updated that estimate to $69.2 million for a reduced order of 2,443 jets.
The committee’s chairman and ranking member, Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), respectively, did not hide their concern with the troubled program. Levin noted that the cost increase for the aircraft ranges between 60 and 90 percent.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
That’s a little better than Obama, who is about 70% over the cost that I expected ... and I thought he would be a financial disaster!
They should put Costco in charge of military procurement. Those guys could come up with a Kirkland fighter every bit as good as the Lightning II, but 40% cheaper. The catch: you have to buy it in “warfighter packs” of 24 planes. Buy in bulk and save, Uncle Sam!
ping
So, no F-22 and now no F-35 (as it seems to be trending).
Our boys are going to be sitting ducks for any of the next-gen missiles.
Yep. That is precisely Obama's intention.
They(meaning the Pentagon) might shift production to the F-22
No worries, we have squadrons of Skittle-s**ting Unicorns standing by.
Don’t send maned aircraft then.
If we didn't spend the money and do the r&d, our stuff would suck and Sadam's airforce would have kicked our ass even worse than Iran kicked Carter's ass. Which is what libbies like Carter and obama want.
And a day like that is coming if we don't spend the money, work out the engineering and build some F-35s...and more F-22s than the handful we have now.
In order for that to happen, “they” would have to get Congress to appropriate the money.
Unmanned aircraft are not AI controlled and can have a several second lag time between observation-control input-action. This makes them currently completely unsuitable for close air support.
Which, I remind you, was a mission both the F-35 and to a lesser degree the F-22 were going to service.
The problem came from Lockheed lying back in the fall to the SecDef that everything was on schedule and below costs. Because they decided to go with Super SPO’s instead of the normal SPOs at ASC at Wright-Patt, this was bound to happen. Now the briefings are given to the Pentagon instead of the Pentagon going to the manufacture like they did when the SPO’s were at ASC. Also combining AFLC and AFSC into one Command took away checks and balances in the Air Force. Two Commands didn’t get along but it meant inside the SPO at least they had the checks and balances.
Also all the merges left three major companies and now they bid everything from own company so they are free to take money from one system and use it on another while the AFPRO turns a blind eye.
AFPRO at the AF Plant at Fort Worth had to turn a blind eye as well.
NOTE: This system got in trouble in the year that Obama was President. Kind of makes you wonder why a system that was moving along all of a sudden gets in all kinds of trouble. Political appointees?
So? Put four unmanned up with short and long range missiles and flood the target for a quarter the price and total suicide capabilities. Who cares if if you lose them. Does any shed tears about bullet, cannon shell, missile death?
What is wrong with the A10 or F16 for ground support?
Missiles and other automated aircraft cannot do close air support. It’s not that you lose them, it’s that your guys on the ground often get killed if you do because the missiles are ‘stupid’ and can’t automatically determine when to hold off to avoid hitting the ground troops.
The F16 is a fast-mover interceptor, not a dedicated close air support bird. It has terrible loiter time, so it’s one-pass, go get gas in many situations. It has no armor, so any idiot with an AK can bring one down. And, again, it’s got a huge IR signature that anyone with a shoulder-fired missile can track and hit successfully.
The A10 is a dedicated CAS bird, but it’s *old*. Most A-10 pilots are younger than the airplanes they fly; the aircraft themselves are starting to get tired and have structural integrity problems (wing spars fatiguing, etc). We can’t buy any new A-10s because when the Democrat Congress cancelled the program, they ordered the tooling destroyed. We only have 350 or so of the planes left, parts are getting hard to find, and if we wanted to make more it would take ten years to restart production.
So, re jig A-10’s. The wings, airframes can be lofted up in hours.
I don’t believe the IR signature vis a vis SAM is significantly different between the 16 vs. ...whatever. Jet engine blow is blow.
No. Only a golden BB can bring down a jet. Probably tens of millions of rounds are needed to be in the same place as a CAS aircraft. Anyways with guided bombs, there is zero need to be with in range. Try again.
Anyways, what that got to do with 35/22 programs? Why send a Ferrari to do a pickup’s work?
I commend the ‘Black Hole’ IR suppression system to your attention, as well as the much reduced IR signatures of both the 35 and 22, which would require major redesign to incorporate into the 16.
No, you don’t need a golden BB to bring down an F-16, as has been demonstrated repeatedly.
Guided bombs are not the entire answer. They’re not even the majority of the answer. Check out all the stories of CAS here on this very site for info on that - quite often CAS craft have to ‘switch to guns’.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.