The F-35... I read an article that calculated a trend in the United States Air Force from the end of WWII to ...whenever the article was written, I forgot. Probably c2005 when the F-22 went into service... that they were buying fewer and fewer aircraft and spending more on each one - not just fewer types, but fewer individual airframes. The guy calculated that in the year 2054, the USAF would buy a single aircraft with its entire airframe procurement budget, down from thousands in 1954. It's a pity what happened in Canada on 1959 February 20 - it would be a whole different world today if the Avro CF-105 Arrow had a full career.
The F-35 was perfect for us. With the Harrier much of our air-force infrastructure and our carriers are pretty much made with VTOL in mind. We are also loathe to give up this capability as the Falklands War showed just how effective it was in combat. The Argentine pilots were terrified of the Harrier and called it 'The Black Death'.
The F-35 solved many problems the Harrier did have like the high pilot workload and steep learning curve. It's a straight upgrade in every way IMO. And the JSF project created lots of jobs and wealth for all nations involved. We had learned our lesson about working with Europe with the Eurofighter debacle. Never good when you are relying on Spanish and Italian timekeeping and efficiency! lol
I would love to see a MBT version of the JSF. Imagine all the best bits of the Challenger II and the M1 Abrams combined!
Oh definitely, but then everything is these days in those areas. An Abrams costs $9 million and that is 40 year old tech! Kinda expected the price to be sky high on something bleeding edge like the F-35...
I always thought it was grimly amusing that in both Gulf Wars the UK and USA were firing missiles that cost way more than the tanks they were blowing up.
Which again is very telling as it has been in service since 1987. We really need a new one.
We bought plenty of F-35Bs, the most expensive variant, so you would think we could afford to switch to a battle proven rifle!
The F-35... I read an article that calculated a trend in the United States Air Force from the end of WWII to ...whenever the article was written, I forgot. Probably c2005 when the F-22 went into service... that they were buying fewer and fewer aircraft and spending more on each one - not just fewer types, but fewer individual airframes. The guy calculated that in the year 2054, the USAF would buy a single aircraft with its entire airframe procurement budget, down from thousands in 1954. It's a pity what happened in Canada on 1959 February 20 - it would be a whole different world today if the Avro CF-105 Arrow had a full career.
The F-35 was perfect for us. With the Harrier much of our air-force infrastructure and our carriers are pretty much made with VTOL in mind. We are also loathe to give up this capability as the Falklands War showed just how effective it was in combat. The Argentine pilots were terrified of the Harrier and called it 'The Black Death'.
The F-35 solved many problems the Harrier did have like the high pilot workload and steep learning curve. It's a straight upgrade in every way IMO. And the JSF project created lots of jobs and wealth for all nations involved. We had learned our lesson about working with Europe with the Eurofighter debacle. Never good when you are relying on Spanish and Italian timekeeping and efficiency! lol
I would love to see a MBT version of the JSF. Imagine all the best bits of the Challenger II and the M1 Abrams combined!
I'm not saying it's bad, but it does seem way overpriced.
Oh definitely, but then everything is these days in those areas. An Abrams costs $9 million and that is 40 year old tech! Kinda expected the price to be sky high on something bleeding edge like the F-35...
I always thought it was grimly amusing that in both Gulf Wars the UK and USA were firing missiles that cost way more than the tanks they were blowing up.