[Mariner]

"As production ramps up, and we implement additional cost savings initiatives, we are on track to reduce the cost of the F-35A to $80 million by 2020," said Lockheed F-35 general manager Greg Ulmer earlier this year. "That is equal to or less than legacy aircraft, while providing a major leap in capability."

Who thinks we should be buying F-15s and F-16s and F-18s now?

Really, as good as the F-15c is, and it is an excellent air superiority fighter, who would buy one of them and forgo an F-35A?

Sure we'd like to have a modernized F-22, but that program has not even been proposed.

Yet.

[libertylover]

Two fighter wings and only 36 aircraft capable of taxying? I wonder if a modern fighter wing is what used to termed a fighter squadron. In my (old) days one fighter wing had about 72 aircraft.

[Psalm 73]

Thanks for the post.
Going waay back to the Bradley IFV, the M1 Abrams, and even the B1B - they were all talked of as boondoggles and a waste of money.
Once fielded they performed pretty darned good. I think we could look back to the F-35 and say the same in ten, twenty years.

[Bayard]

Unit cost of an f-15 is around 30 million per jet but that was 20 years ago. A Quarter the price (Roughly!) to an F-35 without factoring inflation. It was Introduced 1976 over 40 years ago and has been retrofitted since.

Unit cost of an F-16 is approaching 20 million (I’m surprised at how cheap they are, but we export these so maybe that’s because replacement orders are cheap) about 1/5th the price of a F-35. But again, the F-16 is a 40 year old platform with lots of retrofits.

F-22s are about 150 million, as per Wikipedia. That’s a lot of money for a fighter platform.

F-35s are around 90-115 million depending on the service variant. They introduce a new level of options because they are a stealthy platform. So I think its worth the investment if not to augment our current military.

[\/\/ayne]

[Kozak]

Obama made sure it will never happen. They destroyed the tooling.

[CodeToad]

How long were they then grounded for maintenance?

How many didn’t take part? Only 35 airplanes for two wings?? That’s about half.

[blam]

Think of this.....we spend $135 billion a year on illegal immigrants.

[rbg81]

Nice pics, but it says ZIP about their lethality.

Apparently the F-35 can’t dogfight worth a damn, but (supposedly) enemy fighters won’t even be able to get close to ‘em. I have heard that one before. Color me skeptical.

[rdcbn]

“As production ramps up, and we implement additional cost savings initiatives, we are on track to reduce the cost of the F-35A to $80 million by 2020,” said Lockheed F-35 general manager Greg Ulmer earlier this year. “That is equal to or less than legacy aircraft, while providing a major leap in capability.”

————

Because , Trump

That the F35 is an outstanding aircraft is not in doubt, the question always was price -performance and if we could afford enough of them to make a difference

At 80 million a ship, the F-35 is a smoking deal

Only Donald Trump could have cut through the Government/LMCO pricing CF and delivered the F35 at an “affordable” (ie originally projected price point).

This is what happens when prices are negotiated by a negotiator acting in the interests of the country as opposed the interests of politicians demanding bribes or demanding contributions to their campaigns or their foundations

[Chode]

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[tallyhoe]

1. This A/V should not be sold to any foreign government. It entirely too classified and costly to sell and the A/V could fall into the wrong hands..

[DesScorp]

“Who thinks we should be buying F-15s and F-16s and F-18s now?”

Anyone with sense.

The Joint Strike Failure is still a piece of crap that doesn’t work, and it’ll never get even close to $80 million. And as a result, USAF will never get close to buying 2500 of them. They’re just too expensive.

[Arlis]

My Navy son now in flight school just may end up flying one of these puppies....... :-)

[YogicCowboy]

F-22, yes.

I say - and have said - the F-35 is the 21st F-111.

[familyop]

"...the US military has started to deploy its stealth-enabled F-35 fighter jet."

The U.S. military had them in units a long time ago. Many other countries are using them, too. There are hundreds now, and eventually, there will be thousands.