if the Joint Strike Failure get cancelled, what about the foreign countries that already invested billions in its development and orders.
will they get they’re money back, or is the US willing compensate with other aircraft? (for example offering the newer F-16V (or block 60 derivative) and F/A-18E/F advanced super hornet as compensation).
in my honnest opinion, i think the project was doomed from the start.
the poor performance in terms of speed, agility and A2A abilities, coupled with ever increasing unit- and operational costs only add gasoline to the fire.
they should have just sticked with the original plan, a standard stealth fighter without all the high-spec gadgets (and instead use exisiting off-the-shelf gear), just like how the F-5 and F-16 was in the 70’s.
the aircraft could have also been cheaper if they scrapped the STOVL B-variant, as thats where most of the budget went to.
back in 2001, the plan was for a cost of 50- to 60 million dollars a piece, now that cost has more then doubled.
the financial crisis in the US and Europe, witch are coupled with heavy defence budgetcuts, doenst allow those countries to buy the numbers required to meet demands (The Netherlands already had to cut from 85 to about 48, Denmark from 48 to 30,…).
however, with almost $400 billion invested in the project, how do tend to recover the money invested/lost. besides, production and introduction into service has already begun.
by looking at it, the program is to big and to far progressed to be cancelled.
if the program gets cancelled, i suggest the US keep the aircraft already built and on the assembly line and pay back the foreign investers.
the F-35 could be a good strike platform, and close the gap the F-117 had left. the F-35 is kinda an advanced version of the F-117.
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