If the F-35 turns out to cost 125mil a piece compared to a 55mil SH (i.e. same year dollars), it failed.

The FY2011 F-35C has a REC Flyaway price of $170 million. Remember that this is the 2nd year thet F-35Cs are being built, IIRC. That price will drop very quickly based on historical LRIP trends.

Here is a graph I put together showing historical LRIP prices.

IMO a JSF with a suprecruise speed of 1.4-1.5M , a max speed of M1.8+ , better manoeuvrability thru TVC and other little tweaks to the level of 4+ and 5th gen fighers , would have been a much more formidable player in the fighter world ,

And what would you have sacrificed to get this level of performance? All these changes would require added weight. For example a larger engine to get SC, TVC, higher max speed, larger wings, etc all require added weight. This weight would likely come at a penalty of range as fuel levels would have to be reduced.

A better, faster, and cheaper alternative is to accelerate the development of A2A weapons for the F-35. This is where JDRADM comes into play.

Info on APG-79 Jamming

This USN RDT&E doc has tons of info on F/A-18 upgrades. It looks like APG-79 jamming will go IOC in the 2012-2014 timeframe.

http://www.dtic.mil/descriptivesum/Y2011/Navy/0204136N_PB_2011.pdf

The Dutch vote will not be acted upon till AFTER the elections.

The Netherlands has been run by a caretaker Labor/Christian Democrat government since the previous government lost a vote of confidence in February over the army’s deployment in Afghanistan. Van Middelkoop said in a statement issued on May 20 that he was neither willing nor able to act on Parliament’s vote as he believed the government’s temporary status means it cannot take such irreversible decisions before the election.

This graphic from a 2008 presentation shows that the USAF is looking at LRIP F-X around 2027.

With tanks, the F-35C will greatly exceed 700nm. Even the F-35A without tanks is pushing 700nm, much less with them.

By “high 700nm range” I was referring to the 775-800nm area.

What I asked for was a source for yoúr claim that the F-22 could update the targets for SDB’s on the fly, but JDAM is also interesting. It is not enough if only the bombs can receive the updates.

Here is info on Boeing’s website.

Fuse: electronic safe/arm fuze (ESAF) cockpit selectable functions, including air burst and delayed options

While it does not speak of GPS data, it’s obvious.

I have found no mention of any ability for the F-22 to receive external coordinates for ground targets

With integrated avionics, the source and type of target are irrelevant. If you can get external A2A targets, then you can also get external A2G. IF you think about it, this is how the F-22 has been using it’s 1000 lb JDAMs so far.

FWIW, as the topic is related to F-35… while the F-35’s architecture has possibility to integrate NGJ, there would be necessary hardware modifications and other likely cockpit updates required to the a/c as well. It’s not as simple as just plugging-in a modularized F-35 airframe when the time comes. As such, there will obviously be extensive testing done to assess actual feasible operations of an F-35 NGJ platform and whether to go there/fund it, or stick with platforms such as Growlr.

Obviously the NGJ integration into the F-35 will take more than just the wiring. But, that’s the most difficult part to retrofit.

The only thing else is changing the software and adding some CPU cards (which there is plenty of room for).

My point was that LM did not believe in an exclusive passive stealth future for the F-35, but has an extensive plan for active jamming capabilities for the F-35’s future if needed.