via Yahoo News.
"We have concluded that these planes are the best ones for us. There is nothing in the development over the past couple of years that has shaken that decision," she said. "At the same time, it's a huge investment and it's definitely also something that will have consequences for the rest of our armed forces."Yeah.
Told ya so.
We can quibble about the effectiveness of the airplane. We can argue about the total obedience to orders that Lockheed Martin has over some members of the Pentagon.
But the extreme cost of this airplane, both to the nations buying it and to the rest of their militaries is beyond doubt. The F-35 is so expensive that its making our partner Air Forces smaller (so small that they're no longer effective) AND having a knock on effect of gutting their other forces to the point of irrelevancy.
from the Reuters article:
ReplyDelete"We have concluded that these planes are the best ones for us."
The F-35 is about halfway through development and many problems have been identified, so of course any conclusion "that these planes are the best ones for us" is obviously premature.
also from the always LM-faithful Reuters piece:
"But Ine Eriksen Søreide, who became defense minister in October, told Reuters that Norway was keeping a close eye on the program's costs, software development, prospects for industrial participation by Norwegian industry, and how the planes will be serviced once they are delivered to Europe."
Norway is one of the eight "partners" and is proceeding methodically. Currently there are two planes for Norway in production (LRIP-7), with perhaps two more to be contracted this year (LRIP-8).
Norway has benefited financially from North Sea Oil, but it still has a huge debt (for 5 million people) and there is some fear that the bubble may burst.
Norway ordered four planes in 2012/2013. The first four F-35s will be used for the training of Norwegian crews and were acquired in 2011. The first two will be delivered in the United States in 2015 and the last two in 2016. Norway ordered six more planes in October.
ReplyDeleteNorway is paying $205 million per plane. That's bound to sink in to the new defense minister at some point.