Has anyone figures wrt the costs of GaN vs GaA? Or what’s the base for these claims?

@Philip,
it’s naive to believe that the aircraft will become much more expensive now where it is in production, it’s in fact much more likely that the aircraft will become cheaper As it matures and full rate production is ramping up. The maintenance costs aren’t Set known either and predictions were so far based ob legacy ac, which isn’t appropriate as the F-35 establishes a new maintenance and logistics concept. We’ll have to wait and see how this works out. As aforementioned it is pre-mature to say that it will be this or that way.

As I see it the UK wants to have two fast jet types. One optimized for air defence of the UK & the Falklands, the other to be a strike jet that can do air to air and must be able to fly off a carrier. If the F35C was proven, affordable, available and supportable it would be great. When is the UK really likely to need a full 5th generation attack plane? Buy Rafale for less money and using some of the saving buy some Hawkeyes.

The F-35 is currently in a stage where it receives most of the critics, almost every military aircraft programme ran through this stage. The aircraft is late and not as cheap as envisaged, but which aircraft actually is?
I’m certain once the F-35 has matured and is in full rate production it will offer a better bang for the buck than any Rafale or Eurofighter for that matter. The aircraft is much newer, it’s more advanced and VLO is definitely the way to go. The F-35 will be built in much larger quantities and will be operated by many more countries than the Rafale could ever hope for. In the longer term cost savings wrt upgrades and spares are quite likely and wrt LCC the F-35 may have the upper hand as well. Thus far we don’t know about the final purchase and operating cost, most of the claims in either direction are mere speculation and that’s it. Any claims to the extend “it’s more expensive or cheaper than X or Y” is speculative only at this point, but that’s something people won’t grasp as long as they have an agenda. The F-35 will be operated well into the second half of this century so you can be ensured that the aircraft will be continuously updated and kept relevant. It’s no shame that this much newer aircraft will exceed existing types in a lot of areas, though that doesn’t mean it will enjoy total superiority or will be better at everything. The argument that the F-35 is only good with an internal payload is nonsense to stay polite and it’s in fact that design inherent flexibility that distinguishes the F-35 from other designs. You can either choose the VLO config for first day of war missions or the dirty config for the second day jobs were more payload is required, but stealth requirements are lowered. That’s something no other aircraft offers right now and not in the foreseeable future either. The aircraft deserves a chance and we have in fact seen programmes like this before. Many promises, cost targets and schedules and all this not being kept, trying to make a special case out of this is ignorant and stupid. As aforementioned as long as the F-35 doesn’t fail I don’t see the Rafale as a viable option for the UK’s armed forces, especially not for the RAF.

Thanks for the link EEL.

There is actually one really interesting part…

The UK MoD funding will lead to the first flight of a Captor-E prototype in 2013. But it will feature only limited radar modes, and the array will consist of Gallium Arsenide (Ga) transmit-receive modules that were developed by British company Filtronic, now part of Teledyne. The ultimate array planned for Captor-E will use more advanced Gallium Nitride modules developed for the Euroradar consortium by EADS Cassidian.

When are GaN to be introduced on the RBE2AA? 2018?:diablo:

Sorry that was a must.:p

Is probably owed to the fact that Mr. Hotdog is a bizzar guy.:diablo:

@Nicolas

I wasn’t aware that the Typhoon was carrier capable.

It isn’t but people should take into account that the F-35C is not for the RN only, but also for the RAF. Introducing two types would be too expensive, thus introducing Rafale for the RN & RAF would be redundant on behalf of the RAF. Of course it would be possible to opt for the Rafale wrt the RN only and buy more Typhoons for the RAF instead, but I nonetheless believe that the F-35 will be a fine striker and is certainly better suited to that requirement than the Typhoon and more advanced and future proof than the Rafale. If hell freezes and the F-35 fails I would say Rafale for the RN instead of a navalized Typhoon, but I just can’t see this happen.