Again it is your point of veiw which sees the US spending billions on developing a FB-22 and buying it at a price that will be significantly lower then the F-35 aswell as investing in a J-UCAS , however the F-35 promises something that will benefit 3 services would replace the overwhelming bulk of the USAF/USN/USMC’s fleet at something supposedly cost effective pricing . The J-UCAS can also be procured however it has to sell itself first and the ongoing N-UCAV program has to proove itself that a serviceworthy aircraft ( X-45C and bigger) is capable of performing complex missions in a Flight Test enviroment ( something the F-35 has allready begun as of last few months) .

Sorry. Typo. I meant B-2 not B-22. Gotta run. Will get into this more later. Why Eurofighter and Euro-UCAV make better sense than J$F. Why F-22, B-2, J-UCAS, F-16, F-18 make better sense that J$F etc…etc.

Nobody’s addressed the far more interesting question of what Israel will do if the F-35 is canned. Any ideas? Any chance of them getting their hands on Rafales or Typhoons (& how would they pay for them? US aid is tied to US weapons), or would they be stuck with upgraded teens, or would the US sell them the F-22 (maybe an “F-22 lite”) – or maybe (getting into wild speculation here 🙂 ) an Indo-Israeli new fighter?

They have no need for the JSF or F-22. Of course that would help bleed tech to China faster.

No gun = dumb.

Even today F-14,15,16,18 have had to drop down in support of the GFAC to strafe after using up their PGMs. Hard fact of life.
A2A is going to look aweful silly on a GWOT intercept if the missile system goes sour and you don’t have a gun as a backup.

As for the “wear” on the airframe. Big deal. That is what refirb – ISSO/Phase maintenance is for, and engineers are for: Tire patch the problem with an engineer fix and press on. The next value added thing for defense that needs to be done is have a few hacks in the MOD weeded out for being morons and set the example for others. Nice advantage the private sector has that the government doesn’t, is when someone comes up with a really dumb idea, you fire them.

Good work. If found guilty, there’s plenty of room in Gitmo for these losers. Hanging at the Tower of London, or worse would be prefered though.

Everyone whinning about scooping them up on intent are the same that would be crying fowl blaming the same security pukes if there were half a dozen or more airliners downed with thousands dead. The alleged evil doers were not planning to rob a bank, rough up patrons at a soccer match, etc. The plan involved mass casaulties. Better safe than sorry. Of course, we shall see at the trial. Be a pretty huge screwup to get this much wrong with this many pro security people involved.

Originally Posted by ELP
“And there is little man can do to stop it. Get over ”

Cant agree with this …we can at least try…now i am far from being a GReen or a tree hugger i like my car far too much!!

BUT we can all do at least a little bit to help after all we dont get a second chance or for that matter a second planet ( at least not yet!! ) and you can save some money when you are at it!!

Personally i am fed up with being at the behest of GW and his profit greedy buddies in the Oil industry….So i am installing a wood chip/pellet boiler to replace the oil fired central heating system..now its dear to install over here in this RIPOFF Republic but am going to give it a go..its running costs are roughly HALF that of Oil or Gas .

I have also invested in a ” Greencone” waste system that takes all the food waste from the house and turns it into goo thats good for the plantlife!!! And it gets rid of paying for the waste bin service( privately owned and very expensive!) anything that cant go into it will go to he local recycling centre.

Wish i had known about termal heating when renovating the house a few years ago…..FREE HEAT !!!

there are loads of options out there go look for them!!!

Anyway thats just some of it…hit the ruddy oil barons where it hurts …In the pocket…and at least try to help poor old mother earth….she is pretty sick and needs a hand!! 🙁

Using a sound and good envio friendly lifestyle is something we should all do. Not drive big cars unless needed for a real need. Have government perform better on energy regulation. Recyle waste. Enforce sensible polution laws. Explore alternate energy in a more responsible way. Yes all these things are good. Thinking any of that is going to stop global warming from happening is, however, very unrealistic.

Don’t forget the 2004 creative accounting which when discovered, pushed the total program cost of JSF from $250 billion up to $276 billion. Not all that with the colors of money mixing was cost of inflation.

Also file the AESA being fielded by the U.S. as a datalink also. The higher bandwidth allows it to take some of the heat off of the traditional datalinks by being able to send images and other things out to users ( GFACs ) etc. This is being worked on now.
Using the SH AESA kit as an example adds up = having the ability to be used ( and packaged as a complete system with add ons ) as not just a sensor, but datalink, ECM/ESM system, multi-flavored C2ISR asset etc, energy weapon, but that is yet to be defined. How much extra gear and ( weight ) would you have to put on a fighter sized aircraft, to do that the old fashioned way? We have explored everything we can with the motorized analog dish. For the most part, for us, that technology is a dead end. Including the big thing on that chart. Field maintenance. AESA as we are fielding it also = more aircraft with working sensor systems are available for a mission.
We have the AWACs and use it because it is available and there are no funds for a full replacement. However, the next one will look more like a Wedgetail and not a mechanical spinner. Just on maintenance issues alone.

The F-35C clearly offers superior range and payload. While the F-35B does offer better sortie rates. That said, I would still choose the CTOL F-35C…….Personally, I think a mix buy would offer more capability with the F-35B going to the RAF and the F-35C going to the RN. This would mirrior the USMC and USN plan……with the F-35B providing close support to the troops and would follow them ashore. With the F-35C doing Fleet Defense, Long Range Interdiction, etc. :rolleyes:

Once we see REAL flight testing of said sortie rates. Hasn’t happened yet. The liftfan being successfully used over sustained ops will be the proof. If we end up dumping hugely expensive airframes on the order of what we did with the Harrier, then it is a waste of money better spent on other war winning things.