via Reuters.
A senior military official said it did not make sense to cancel the Navy variant outright, since that would drive higher cost of the remaining airplanes to be purchased by the Air Force and the Marine Corps, and could unsettle international partners on the program.Read the entire article here (just a rehash of yesterdays news).
Make no mistake about it. For the first time the unvarnished truth about the F-35 and the Navy was just said publicly.
Long story short?
The Navy doesn't want it. The program is nervous about costs. The program is worried about losing partners. So everything must die so that the F-35 can live.
My prediction? More proof that Navy leadership will continue with as low a rate production as possible to keep the shit wagon going. They will push all purchases to the right when they're able and in the end the F-35 will never be an important part of carrier aviation.
This airplane is the modern day F7U. It might look futuristic. It might even be kinda cool, but it will never be a suitable airplane for its proposed role. Like the F7U the F-35 will be left on the beach more times than it makes it to the ship.
Note. I would pay good money to know who the "Senior Official" was that made such a matter of fact statement. I'd also pay good money to know if he got reprimanded for the crime of daring to speak the truth and not spewing the program office talking points!
Whoa whoa whoa. I thought F-35 was already in the Death Spiral?
ReplyDeleteIt won't die if Congress can be convinced to push it forward no matter how little it progress it actually makes.
DeleteAccording to a new article from Reuters, the 2015 budget will not include funding for any more Super Hornets or Growlers: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/02/24/uk-usa-defense-budget-weapons-idUKBREA1N1NX20140224
I'm still holding my hopes until March 4 and even then there will still be another fight in the 2016 budget. At least the line got out about 698 airframes for the Navy already. Those 698 tactical fighters will be put to good use.
i've started reading about the Jimmy Carter defense cuts and this is starting to follow the same trajectory with almost the same dynamics in play (at least in my mind).
Deletethis is just the first down turn.
they killed everything to get the F-35 and the F-35 will end up being too expensive anyway to buy at plan. the end result will be a failed fighter and a toothless rest of the defense.
these bastards in the JCS need to fry.
Nothing is certain on SH/G until December. The F-35 EW suite will not equal a current Growler, and falls way behind when NGJ replaces ALQ-99 - there is a reason why Raytheon won the NGJ contract, even after a protest.
DeleteI still like Admiral Greenert, but the other chiefs... yeah they totally need to go.
DeleteDidn't Jimmy kill all the military programs just to create the Cruise missiles?
DeleteI have the solution. -- the new array--
ReplyDeleteF-35A - CTOL - conventional take off land
F-35B - STOVL - short take off vertical land
F-35C - CTONL - carrier take off no land
Or if they don't like that, simply change CV to HV, Hangar Variant (--stuck in Patuxent)
Seriously, "senior military official" is making the assumption that there actually is a "Navy (really N & MC) variant" that might be procured when there isn't. Actually all they have are a few prototypes that can't even land on a carrier, and to compound that bad situation they've covered up the details on where, why and how much. And why would canceling the CV unsettle international partners? It is a unique variant not slated for purchase by any of the eight JSF international partners.
Lockheed, according to its most recent "Fast Facts," expects to sell a total of 3054 Joint Strike Fighters. Of that number 340 (260 N, 80 MC) are carrier variants. How could a decrease of 11% drive the unit cost higher? Makes no sense. But that's not unusual for the F-35 program.
I love that picture of the three F-35s. It shows them in a big empty field in the middle of no where. Right where they belong.
ReplyDeleteAnd that was the laugh the I needed for today.
DeletePracticing for mission gate guard.
DeleteIt had seemed to be a do-able endeavour when it was still the JAST then.
ReplyDeleteThe JSF fanboys are claiming that the F-35B durability tests are a big success because they've found cracks and fractures all over the plane and that's the purpose of the test.
ReplyDeleteI believe the fanboys are being overly modest.
If failures are a sign of success there are many more JSF feature-failures to brag about.
Weapons integration, helmet, ALIS, overall performance, availability, reliability, maintainability, Verification Simulation, vulnerability, buffet and TRO, -- the list goes on, all signifying big testing successes.
The biggest test success by far is the failure of one of the three variants to accomplish its most basic requirement. The F-35C carrier variant is unable to operate on a carrier! That's a huge success. The purpose of carrier variant trap tests is to verify that the plane can catch the wire -- and they learned that it can't! That's a huge success.