The Joint Program Office (JPO) estimates that continued development of the F-35 to deal with evolving threats and changing warfighting environments will cost the U.S. government more than $1 billion a year between 2018 and 2024.

The figure came to light during testimony from Vice Admiral Mathias Winter to the U.S. House Armed Services Committee on 7 March.

In total, JPO estimates that continuous capability development and delivery (C2D2) of the F-35 will cost $16.4 billion over that seven year time period, with some $11 billion going toward development and $5.4 billion toward procurement.

Read more: https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/f-35-development-and-support-to-cost-1-billion-ann-446565/

How does this compare to other fighter jet programs at this stage? Of course having 3 different versions and a lot of concurrency costs are costly, but still this is quite a large number?

How many F-35B will fly from the USS Wasp?

I struggle to understand why the RAF has been singled out in the OP. Notwithstanding that I think the premise is incorrect, especially given that the world is probably the closest its been to a major war in over half a century, surely the same logic (or lack thereof) would apply equally to any European nation and others.

I agree completely; the whole of Europe should really start building defences again, including fighters that can handle major wars; so a large number of F-35 complemented with a large number of Eurocanards.

And the Eurofighter countries should make a decision to implement an upgrade path of the Typhoon that will bring it to the same level as (or above) Rafale F4 and Gripen E, in terms of avionics… I have not yet seen anything to indicate this is going to happen?

Indeed, what’s the point.

We should focus on a 20-year horizon only — after that the AIs will reach and surpass human level intelligence and take over. What we do and say after that point may be irrelevant since humans no longer will be in charge.

One can only speculate what kind of fighter a/c the AIs will develop and field 20+ years from now. Perhaps based on new physics? Anti-grativity? We have absolutely no idea, we will be like rats trying to second-guess what kind of rats nest the humans might be able to construct. Or perhaps we will be more comparable to ants.

In any case it is fascinating to ponder that not just the Typhoon, Rafale, F-35, F-22 will be obsolete; also the 6-gen a/c currently in the US pipeline will at that time all be as obsolete as arrows and bows.

Interesting times.

According to Winter, the JSF’s programme executive officer, the aircraft’s costs are unsustainable as the fleet grows.

Evidence suggests the F-35’s cost problem can be mended. Lockheed’s once-broken final assembly process for the F-35 delivered 66 aircraft last year, exactly on target. The reliability of JSFs delivered last year is markedly better than the jets shipped the year before.

The only question that remains is whether Winter’s cost-reduction strategy will be too little and too late.

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/opinion-f-35-cost-issue-is-solvable-but-needs-fixi-446392/

I hope this is just scare-mongering!? I thought the F-35 had already turned the “affordability corner”???

As possible cheaper alternatives to the Eurofighter offer two aircraft: the Swedish Gripen and the American F-16. In the case of a new purchase, there are two major problems: The Republic would have to take a lot of money for new aircraft in the hand, and the Eurofighter would have to be disposed of. Ideally, the manufacturer buys them back, if he does not, they would have to be scrapped.

The Republic accuses the Jetherstellern to have been deceived “fraudulently” about the true purchase price as well as about the ability to supply and equipment of the interceptors. The damage amounts to at least the 183.4 million, but the Republic wants to claim up to 1.1 billion euros, because with “legally compliant behavior” by the provider Austria would have bought no Eurofighter, but the cheaper competing product Saab Gripen and would have Spared about one billion.

Google translated from: http://orf.at/stories/2426633/

A Swedish aviation expert compares the F-35 and Gripen E:

https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/qnPz2z/experten-sa-klarar-sig-svenska-39-gripen-e–mot-superplanet-f35a

(Use Google translate or another automatic translator if your Swedish is rusty 🙂 )

Rafale, SH, and perhaps also the Typhoon seems to me to have more RCS reduction efforts being done than the others…

I wonder if Gripen E will manage to get down to Rafale/SH levels of RCS reduction? Perhaps it will?