More JSF news ….

LAST EDITED ON 22-Mar-01 AT 03:59 PM (GMT)[p]Not much of an update but this article seems to suggest that the STOVL JSF, specifically highlighted for attention it seems, may be a looking a little shakey in a programme that, as a whole, aint looking tremendously safe.

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Fate Of British JSF Unresolved After Hoon, Rumsfeld Meeting

By Jim Mathews

21-Mar-2001 3:44 PM U.S. EST

Though the Joint Strike Fighter remains the U.K.’s “preferred option” to equip two planned new aircraft carriers, Britain will have to wait along with everyone else for the results of U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s strategic review before finding out whether that option will be available, British defense chief Geoffrey Hoon told reporters Wednesday at the Pentagon.

In Washington this week for an official visit that included briefings on the JSF and the Boeing C-17 airlifter, Hoon says he discussed the JSF with Rumsfeld during a morning session, but demurred when asked if that meeting produced any commitment to the aircraft.

“We have made it clear that Joint Strike Fighter is our preferred option for the carriers that we are committed to building,” Hoon said following his meeting with Rumsfeld. “Other questions” – such as choosing between the U.S. Marines’ vertical-lift version of the Joint Strike Fighter and the U.S. Navy’s more conventional concept – “in fact are questions that we will have to discuss once the review the United States is conducting is completed.”

Pressed during his appearance with Hoon to say whether any assurances had been given to the U.K., which recently committed another $2 billion to the program, Rumsfeld shot back: “If I start doing that on things that I haven’t studied, would that be prudent? No, that would be wrong. That would be imprudent. That would be unwise.”

British brass said in January that they didn’t expect to make detailed JSF decisions for about a year.

The Future Carrier-Borne Aircraft requirement is for as many as 150 aircraft to replace the Royal Air Force’s night/all-weather attack Harrier GR.7s and Royal Navy air defense Sea Harrier FA.2s, which will be operating as part of the new Joint Force Harrier (JFH). The two new carriers are expected to enter service in 2012 and 2015. Building the ships and fitting them out is projected to cost some $3 billion.

Some in official Washington see the Joint Strike Fighter as a ripe target for cut-backs or even outright cancellation as part of Rumsfeld’s strategic review of all of the Pentagon’s big-ticket procurements. That review fulfills a promise President Bush made during the fall presidential campaign, during which he declared that existing tactical aviation modernization programs could be too expansive.

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Regs,
Steve

Everyone needs something to believe in – I believe I shall have another beer.