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2014-08-19 Home Front: Politix

Why The F-35 Has Turned Into A Trillion-Dollar Fiasco

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Posted by gorb 2014-08-19 11:49|| || Front Page|| [8 views ] Top

#1 One day DoD will only be able to afford one super aircraft with all the bells and whistles. The Air Force and Navy will fly it on alternating days. The Marine Corps will get it on February 29th.

Posted by Procopius2k 2014-08-19 17:53|| 2014-08-19 17:53|| Front Page Top

#2 A post-Cold War, post-911 "light fighter" that makes all the controversial costs-n-issues, etc. of the original Cold War F-16, F-14, F-15, + F-18 look petty or miniscule by comparison.

Posted by JosephMendiola 2014-08-19 20:15|| 2014-08-19 20:15|| Front Page Top

#3 The F-35 is a fine plane. It is new and has problems to sort out. It will do a good job for America and our allies. Because it is good, it is not cheap to build, fly, or maintain.

Some design decisions, single engine and sorta-super-cruise have left it with some limitations in range and performance.

I would personally have chosen updates to the proven two engine F-15 and F-18 designs. But the costs would have been only about half as much, and their performance would not be as good as the mature F-35 aircraft will be.

Finally, there is a good strategic reason to stretch these programs out over many years. In WWII (and WWI) we built up huge pools of labor and capital investments to make war equipment for just a few years and then let it all go. The current approach maintains a small but consistent industrial base. This is more economically efficient and thus cheaper overall. So if we are not about to loose a war due to lack of aircraft, which is indeed the case now, this is the right investment strategy building a fine aircraft.

Posted by rammer 2014-08-19 20:37|| 2014-08-19 20:37|| Front Page Top

#4 Thank goodness Champ had the foresight to cut the F-22 so we'd have room in the budget for this.

Posted by Mike N. 2014-08-19 20:43|| 2014-08-19 20:43|| Front Page Top

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