Despite the title, Denmark has not ordered JSF’s yet, I just happened to come across this little piece of poetry from the danish secretary of defence where he defends the JSF project in ‘Folketinget’ (the danish parliament). And I thought that you aerospace buffs would be interested. The problem might be that it’s written in danish, but I’ve translated a few interesting questions that he answers:
SoD – Secretary of Defence
Question: “Secretary of defence is asked to compare Joint Strike Fighter with other comparable fighters such as JAS 39 Gripen, Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault Rafale and unmanned combat aerial vehicles. The comparision should include price and specifications in relation to danish needs.”
SoD: “Comparision JSF and unmanned combat aerial vehicles (Castor: shortened UCAV from now on). There is today no UCAV capable of conducting the same tasks as a fighter or a future fighter. … The development of UCAVs in the future will be towards UCAVs capable of specialized tasks only meeting some of the features manned fighters have. UCAVs is therefore not regarded as an alternative to JSF.”
SoD: “The airforce expects that fighters replacing F-16s should be operational for 40 years, why they have to be able to meet future requirements”
SoD: “The price of a conventional JSF is expected to be 45.2 million $. … other fighters indicate a price nearly twice as much for Eurofighter Typhoon, but even Dassault Rafale and JAS 39 Gripen are substantially expensive than JSF.”
So, to sum up the parts:
1. UCAVs will be a no show in the future.
2. He is going to use his top notch fighters for 40 years.
3. He got a special-price-for-you-my-friend deal from Lockheed being half the price of a Eurofighter and less than a Gripen or Rafale.
Now to the discussion, do you believe that this guy is on the right track with his analysis or is he just fooled by Lockheed PR-tricks?
regards,
Castor
Source: http://www.ft.dk/Samling/20031/udvbilag/FOU/Almdel_bilag374.htm
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May 14, 2005 at 11:54 pm