A comment made today...
Sgt C said... Kudos to LM if they can keep the plane in the 60-70m range. There would be no reason for anyone who could buy a JSF to buy anything else. Why buy a Yugo when you can get a Corvette for the same amount of money?
USN reluctance and those wild operational cost numbers that came out are pure F18/Boeing mafia. They're pretty entrenched at NAVAIR.
However, don't think that LM is keeping costs in line out the generosity of its Corporate heart. Public scrutiny of JSF (and many defense contracts in general) have them putting the screws to costs. Which is the way it's supposed to work, I believe.
Saw two BF's fly today. Maybe they will make their goals this year. It would be nice to be wrong in this case.
His statement gave me this wild thought. Without Air Power Australia sounding the alarm (most of the time falsely)...without the criticism from the many critics out there...without the breach....the F-35 program would have probably failed without hope of resurrection.
But because of the early and often fire/brimstone thrown at the program....
Policy makers and Lockheed Martin got a heads up that they needed to make changes---and to do it now.
The irony of the situation is this. The people that sought to kill the F-35 might in the end have saved it...they did not allow the builder or the government to be lulled into a sense that all was well.
This is beyond delicious!
Interesting theory. :-) What about the 'self-fulfilling prophecy'; the US Congress start to cut numbers as a consequence of disproportionate criticism.
ReplyDeleteB. Bolsøy
Oslo
i don't think so. Gates is getting what he wants and he wants the F-35. plus he's going to get Obama cost savings in other areas so he'll get each and every F-35 and Obama will brag about canceling other unneeded defense programs
ReplyDeleteLM has ALWAYS said that the CAPE (and others) costs were bunk.
ReplyDeleteNow, they are a few months away from proving it.
without a doubt SpudmanWP...
ReplyDeleteI'm going to enjoy rubbing it in the face of all the doubters.....
I wonder what ELP will have to say when the official LRIP-4 deal is signed?
ReplyDeleteoh, he'll scream and whine and lose his mind. for some reason he's got a roaring hard on for the F-35..but the stars are lining up for a huge order.
ReplyDeletethe Israeli's are trying to swindle a repair depot in their country...Canada is suppose to be on the verge of buying 65....the USMC and USAF is fully behind the programs...the USN is coming around...Gates loves it....Obama doesn't seem to care one way or the other.....
and LM has got the price issue under control.
yep, the stars are lining up nicely.
I would not classify what Israel is doing as a "swindle". As they are the likely first customer who will see A2A, and the most likely user with sustained combat in the F-35.... I say let then have it, as long as they pay for it.
ReplyDeletei call it a swindle only tongue in cheek.
ReplyDeletei guess a better definition would be that they're driving a hard bargain.
first it was that the price was going to be too high...
then it was that they couldn't get Israeli electronics into the airplane ...
and now its a depot inside Israel.
fair enough on all fronts but the trickle of demands is becoming tiresome.
I will agree on the tiresome point.
ReplyDelete