http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/defense/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&newspaperUserId=27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7&plckPostId=Blog%3a27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post%3a6175e8d3-1f58-4ef9-997d-676c03b30c63&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest

The exact numbers have not been released.

Exactly.

I was concerned until I saw the rumor came from Winslow Wheeler.

Bloomberg is picking up the story:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-11-01/pentagon-said-to-see-higher-f-35-costs-more-delays.html

As well as Danger Room:

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/11/pentagons-favorite-jet-delayed-as-costs-rise-yet-again/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+WiredDangerRoom+(Blog+-+Danger+Room)

Can Typhoon carry buddy refueling kit? Once the USN receives its F-35Cs, the F/A-18E/Fs will be relegated to tanker duty supporting the F-35Cs until air defenses are suppressed. F/A-18E/Fs resume a high intensity combat role only after the F-35s neutralize the IADS. I foresee similar usage for Typhoon.

The E/F/A-18E/F/G’s aren’t going to be “relegated” to any role. They are and will be complementary participants in any strike scenario even when the F-35C finally makes it to the fleet.

“Plans to use vertical take-off aircraft on the carriers have been abandoned, however, and cheaper jets that take off and land by using a catapult and wire will be used instead. “

The only substantially cheaper CATOBAR jet on the market is the E/F/A-18E/F/G series – the F-35C is not going to be that much cheaper than the -B.

Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Ft. Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $13,035,539 modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-award-fee contract (N00019-02-C-3002) to incorporate the shipborne rolling vertical landing capability into the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter for the United Kingdom. Work will be performed at Fort Worth, Texas (54 percent); Warton, United Kingdom (35 percent); El Segundo, Calif. (7 percent); and Orlando, Fla. (4 percent). Work is expected to be completed in October 2013. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.

since the US Navy will be the only operator of the F-35C, is it necessary to have all those flags on there?

Well, um maybe the British flag…

Anyway, partner nations’ aerospace companies supply various parts that are used in all variants.

Wildly speculating, it is conceivable for the -C to be procured and used in a land-based operating scenario, not unlike the Canadian, Finnish, and Swiss F/A-18’s.

JSF could be back in the air tomorrow

“JSF Likely Flies Tomorrow”

DoD Buzz/Colin Clark

http://www.dodbuzz.com/2010/10/04/jsf-likely-flies-tomorrow/