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.
In $/kg, the Abrams is in the same ballpark as a new car. I think the problem is that were spending a lot on people who don't work on the product: the lawyers, accountants, lobbyists, C-Levels, HR, middle management, etc.. Decades of cost-plus contracting taking its toll. I remember reading somewhere that the CIWS/FN F2000 cost something like $135,000 each. For what reduces to a rifle duck-taped to a shotgun. A shotgun that can drop a grenade into a pop bottle 400m away though, so there's that.
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.
In $/kg, the Abrams is in the same ballpark as a new car. I think the problem is that were spending a lot on people who don't work on the product: the lawyers, accountants, lobbyists, C-Levels, HR, middle management, etc.. Decades of cost-plus contracting taking its toll. I remember reading somewhere that the CIWS/FN F2000 cost something like $135,000 each. For what reduces to a rifle duck-taped to a shotgun. A shotgun that can drop a grenade into a pop bottle 400m away though, so there's that.