If JSF can be produced at a flyaway cost of ~90 Mn USD, it is quite good value for money. There are no other 4.5 gen fighters other than Su-35 and Gripen NG which can be produced cheaper than that.

If Bogdan was refering to the “Fly Away Unit Cost”, and i think he was, while that particular measure (“FAUC”) is a Pentagon “thingy”, both the twin Eurocanards are significantly cheaper than “~90 Mn USD”.

http://www.aviationweek.com/Blogs.aspx?plckBlogId=Blog:27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7&plckPostId=Blog%3a27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post%3ab5a81988-3910-4528-8f20-ae32e7fcc196

Could this, (or something similar) be a solution to countries like Denmark, Holland and Belgium?

Currently both Holland and Denmark are considering what to do with their F-35 purchases. I think the high cost is a bit scary to those countries in particular given the currrent economical crisis.

Imagine if Holland bought around 40 a/c; Denmark 20; Belgium 30; Luxembourg 10 — that’s a total of 100 a/c!

The a/c could then be operated from one common air base, and maintained at the same place, with pilots and mechanics from each country. By sharing the infrastructure (including simulators etc), and sharing the costs according to how many a/c and flight hours, I think all countries could arrive at a very cost-effective solution.

The range of the F-35 is after all more than enough to cover all 4 countries from one airbase 🙂

What do you think?

Luxembourg!!! :confused:

‘A jack of all trades, a master of none’

I have to disagree on this one, dam good carrier aircraft and an awfull lot of fuel/range/payload for a ten ton aircraft.

But this whole process is not really significant as the tax payers have the final word here 😛

Oh, the envy… 🙁

Is there somewhere an acurate/reliable table or study stating the OPERATIONAL COSTS PER HOUR of the Gripen/Rafale/Eurofighter/SuperHornet, etc…

I have seen several versions and don’t really know what to think:confused:

Thanks in advance if anyone can help.

Its almost impossible to congregate such a table, each country uses his own metrics and even then, its normal for diferent dpts/ministeries to use diferent numbers between them (think of the US GAO/Pentagon).
The only way to get such information its to create a very specific set of specifications and them sending them to the manufacturers and reading the answers, in another words, if you have worked for the Indian MOD, specificaly evaluating the answers to the MMRCA RFP, you shall have a very precise idea.
On the public domain, probably the best work out there is the table from Jane´s, but dont read it like “gospel”, it´s useful to a have a generall idea, nothing else, nothing more.

I think Turkey should seize the opportunity by offering to backstop Greece (with minimal conditions designed to shame greedy Germany/etc.) in exchange for a favourable settlement. In the short-term it’d involve real sacrifice, in the longer term it could reshape the entire picture not only in terms of Greece and Turkey, but Turkey and the EU also, and indeed Turkey’s ‘soft power’ more broadly. Think of it as a miniature Marshall Plan. Bold, daring … history books are made of such stuff.

Ok, back to reality and rule by bureaucrats. :p

Rii

You still believe in Santa, right?!
Oh, by the way i have a very nice bridge for selling, you might be interested…

😀

The way the UK is going to payout is two more Typhoon Squadrons will be formed over the next three years at the same time two Tornado will stand down as of 2011 the RAF is not undertaking navigator training however the task is still part of 100 Sqn remit by the OSD of 2019 there will only be two Tornado GR4 Sqn’s . The UK has at this ordered 48 F-35B’s to operate from it carriers and these will go to FAA I see post the 2015 SDSR the UK will look to order around 60 F-35A to replace the Tornado in the strike role giving the UK around 250 airframe fighter force. However if the UK go down this road this will delay F-35 even more for the RAAF as the UK as a level 1 partner will push to the head of the line after the US for the A model

That scenario will happen with direct Divine intervention or a Russian invasion of Norway, anything less and you can forget it.

The entire F-35B fleet is not going to the FAA, at most one single sqn of F-35B´s will be FAA and even that is in doubt, the UK is not seeking a 250 Fast Jet force, the future is firmly in the “~200 airframes” (the ordered 160 Typhoon´s and 48 JCA´s), the Tornados GR4 are marked for replacement by Typhoon´s and JCA´s. More, at this moment there´s no budget for 48 JCA´s, much less for more sixty in the “post 2015 SDSR”, maybe in the post “2030” it might happen.