But, it is equally shame full on the reason why Indian Government does not want the funds. Such “cover-ups” reminds me of the huge, flashy & costly billboards that were placed on either side of the road to hide the slums & the living conditions of the people during the last Common Wealth Games in New Delhi.

Yep.

He is talking about 1,080-1,300 fighters in total. That means incl. F-22A.
That would mean 900-1,120 F-35As in the pipeline – reduction between 640-860 airframes

Think you’re forgetting about the F-15E there.

I suspect the aircraft intended to remain in service are those already upgraded to A-10C standard.

Like the Su-34 and MiG-31, I can’t see the A-10 heading overseas. Too specialised for the export market.

The ‘facts on the ground’ concerning Chinese espionage, cost of redesigning systems, etc. is reasonable enough; it’s the broader picture that’s being painted with them — that this is a significant contributor to the woes of the F-35 program, the implicit portrait of honest, hardworking Americans being unfairly harassed by those sly, deceitful Chinese — that’s a little silly.

would be funny to get some rafales on board just to act as refuelers… 😀

and eventually do the job when another “issue” occurs with the F-35… :D:D:D

More likely the interim Super Hornets won’t turn out to be so interim after all and the UK will end up operating something like 15 Shars and a dozen F-35s (fingers crossed that they’re all the same model) to supplement its land-based Typhoons.

Meanwhile across the channel the French are laughing their asses off.

[Under rules of the JSF program, countries must themselves fund studies into unique capabilities they want for an aircraft. Since the U.S. can rely on F/A-18E/F Super Hornets as carrier-based refuelers, the U.K. has to finance the engineering assessment on its own.

A U.S. military official says the engineering details and cost estimate of the upgrade should be ready “later this year.” But the U.K. may take longer to decide on its course of action.

*snicker*

The news just gets better and better. You’d almost feel sorry for the Brits if it weren’t entirely their own fault.

During the cold war the US put a lot of money researching stealth while the Soviet put more faith in raw performances and agility.

I think it would be more accurate to say that the US had much more money than the USSR and could afford to dive headfirst into every nook and cranny without rocking the boat too much if it turned out to be a colossal waste of time.

And of course that goes the other way too re: folks praising Russia’s prudence in evolving the Flanker platform. Russia was forced to that path by necessity, not choice.

Rafale will and should win any follow-on contract and pressure from both Super-30 and LCA Mk. 2 should suffice to contain Dassault’s greed without going through the drama of another competition.