Interesting news Gents.
I stand by my statement. The F-35B WILL be the best selling model of this airplane when it comes to foreign buyers. It won't even be close.
Check this out from Bloomberg.
Read the entire article but....The U.K. is reconsidering its 2010 decision not to buy Lockheed (LMT) Martin Corp.’s F-35B jet, said U.S. Navy Vice Admiral David Venlet, program manager for the Joint Strike Fighter.Asked in an interview if the U.K. is again interested in the F-35’s short-takeoff and vertical landing model, Venlet replied: “That is under consideration.”
If the U.K. decides to buy the F-35B, it would be a boost to Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed, as well as the U.S. Marine Corps, which is the major customer for the airplane. In January, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta lifted a yearlong probation on the B model, which is the most complex of the three F-35 variants. At an estimated $382 billion to produce different models for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, the F-35 is the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons program.
In October 2010, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, who is scheduled to visit the U.S. and meet with President Barack Obama March 13-14, announced that Britain wouldn’t buy the F-35B model. Instead, the U.K. expressed interest in the Navy’s aircraft carrier version, which is projected to be cheaper than the short-takeoff and vertical landing model.
The U.K.’s reconsideration of the F-35B model is a “relatively new development” driven by “national U.K. financial constraints and what it costs” to modify its two future Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers so they could carry the U.S. Navy’s F-35C, Venlet said after a presentation to a Credit Suisse conference on defense programs yesterday in Arlington, Virginia.
I guess the old saying "steel is cheap, electronics are expensive" actually is true. I'm having a bit of trouble believing that this entire decision is based on the costs to modify the ships though.
Supposedly that was taken into account when they decided to switch to the C version in the first place. This strikes me as more political than industrial and books will be written about the Brits vacillating between different versions of the F-35.
Okay, I'm going to go out on a limb here.
ReplyDeleteAre we witnessing the first rumblings of something more subtle than a straight B/C swap?
EMALS and AAG have been ordered for HMS Prince of Wales and production slots allocated. Also the F35c is a better fit for what has now become the defunct FOAS requirement to replace Tornado, rather than the initial plan to use F35 as a Harrier replacement.
Okay, bear with me, HMS Queen Elizabeth has already been modified to a flat deck (the ski-jump has been removed)and she is intended to enter service in 2016 and be used as a LPH/trials ship for PoW. The British Government missed the ability to deploy carrier strike over Libya and is somewhat embarrassed by the 'carrier holiday' it has embarked upon. Add into this mix increasingly aggressive mooings by Argentina and a never ending supply of Arab despots and we may be seeing moves to create an interim carrier-strike capability.
What do we think, is the UK engineering a part buy of 'B' as an interim measure (similar to Australia's F18 buy)? Perhaps even with the intention of exchanging these for C's in the future when Queen Elizabeth is refitted. I don't know but these are interesting rumours.
I would not be at all surprised to see the RN, Japan, South Korea, Spain, and Italy all flying the B in addition the USMC before it's all over. Lot cheaper, and easier to get into sea-based fixed wing than CATOBAR.
ReplyDeleteThis kind of hemming and hawing is exactly the kind of behavior one sees when politics are the main driver behind any decision. The greater the political and economic instability, the more you see it manifest in the top level decisions. We are in for a long and wild ride until the politics gets worked out. Interesting times.
ReplyDeleter. crichton:
ReplyDeletei think removing the ski jump made sense regardless of model chosen. it gives extra deck space for helos AND the F-35B doesn't necessarily need it. i would consider it a win either way. your thinking on an interim buy is interesting though. i actually see a split buy. the Royal Navy will get B models and i bet the Royal Air Force finally ends up buying A models.
sferrin:
don't forget Singapore. its all about the B model on the international market.
SMSgt Mac:
right you are sir! the only budgets politicians are comfortable playing with is the military budget. everything else is just too filled with special interests to mess with.