I’d quite like to know whats going on with It’d also be interesting whats going to happen with F-35B, personally I’d think I’d have to cancel it but sadly I think not, but probably be cut in numbers, again.

While I am not an F-35B basher (and as newbie I have be careful not to get that reputation 😉 ), and if it was still going to cost $60 million an airplane I would be all for the F-35B, but would much prefer that following the Defence Review they come up with an innovative way to make sure we can field two air wings of naval strike fighters that are a lot cheaper than the F-35B appears to be heading and provide either some UK jobs or export opportunities that we can get some revenue from.

Personally, in a crazy fanboy way 😮 I would be very interested in seeing how feasible it would be for BAe or EADS to build licensed versions of the SU-33 or Mig-29K with Western engines and avionics. I imagine we could get those for around £50 million an aircraft and the F-35B seems to be around topping $115 million (so £80 million at today’s exchange rate).

I expect in the event that F-35B is cancelled to allow for Lockheed Martin to concentrate on the F-35A to replace USAF’s legacy fighters (with the F-35C introduced much later to replace the super hornets) BAe will persuade Liam Fox that what we really need is a navalised, supersonic, stretched version of the Hawk (AKA Super Hawk) incorporating Goshawk and Hawk 200 designs to provide the carriers with a dedicated air defence fighter with secondary strike capacity – 😀 I better buy my BAe shares as it going to be nice and expensive project for BAe if this happens!