Update May 2013
Floating F35 massive fail. But its only $36 Billion.
Update Feb 12, 2013,
Fat slow plane gets fatter and slower.
Update Dec 13, 2012
Canada pushes the reset button. But there is still a lot of unanswered questions. The DND insists the price per plane is only $87 million, but the US DND has now pegged it at $135 million. Thats if every plane everyone on the planet every dreamed about getting is purchased. That is highly unlikely the US at best will take 1000 instead of 3000.
Does anyone believe the open competition for a new fighter will not have the Government cheerleading and misleading in order to see the F35 selected? Over at the mound of sound reasoned speculation that if there is a fly off like Canada conducted to pick the CF18 the F35 will not even show up. The reason being it would be so badly embarrassed by a competition in the sky vs talking points, Lockheed would never do it.
Update Dec 18 2012
The disinformation campaign is in full bafflegab mode.
Update Nov 28, 2012. The cost has ballooned to $400 Billion dollar just for purchase. Not including the enormous cost to maintain these hanger princesses. New Radars are already deployed that negates the stealth advantage. The actual planes cant do what the computer predicted. No one knows if the millions of lines of code needed to make this plane operate can ever be cleaned up. Best case instead of 3000 planes, 2000 will be purchased. What that means is the development cost applied to every plane just went up 33%. The cost now is pegged at $137 million per plane and soaring.
Update Sept 25, 2011. CF18 pilots have had to shut down one engine more than 200 times. In the F35 that would be 200 crashes.
Updated March 16, 2012, F35 on deathwatch in Canada. In the USA may live on as the Zombie Fighter from Hell.
The
Floating F35 massive fail. But its only $36 Billion.
Update Feb 12, 2013,
Fat slow plane gets fatter and slower.
Update Dec 13, 2012
Canada pushes the reset button. But there is still a lot of unanswered questions. The DND insists the price per plane is only $87 million, but the US DND has now pegged it at $135 million. Thats if every plane everyone on the planet every dreamed about getting is purchased. That is highly unlikely the US at best will take 1000 instead of 3000.
Does anyone believe the open competition for a new fighter will not have the Government cheerleading and misleading in order to see the F35 selected? Over at the mound of sound reasoned speculation that if there is a fly off like Canada conducted to pick the CF18 the F35 will not even show up. The reason being it would be so badly embarrassed by a competition in the sky vs talking points, Lockheed would never do it.
Update Dec 18 2012
The disinformation campaign is in full bafflegab mode.
Update Nov 28, 2012. The cost has ballooned to $400 Billion dollar just for purchase. Not including the enormous cost to maintain these hanger princesses. New Radars are already deployed that negates the stealth advantage. The actual planes cant do what the computer predicted. No one knows if the millions of lines of code needed to make this plane operate can ever be cleaned up. Best case instead of 3000 planes, 2000 will be purchased. What that means is the development cost applied to every plane just went up 33%. The cost now is pegged at $137 million per plane and soaring.
Update Sept 25, 2011. CF18 pilots have had to shut down one engine more than 200 times. In the F35 that would be 200 crashes.
Updated March 16, 2012, F35 on deathwatch in Canada. In the USA may live on as the Zombie Fighter from Hell.
The
Wall Street Journal has revealed the full lifetime cost of maintenance for the F35 will be $1.35 Trillion.(not including $335 Billion cost of planes) Compared to an F16 or F18 it will cost 33% more according to Pentagon estimates. The real cost God only knows. By comparison the Moon landing cost $164 Billion and the US Canada
The F35 program may be the jump the shark moment for the Pentagon and the Military Industrial complex. Not only is the plane unaffordable it’s not a good plane. When congress really looks at what could be accomplished with a tiny portion of this expense it may change the world. For countries like Canada
http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewline/2010/09/videos-dutch-tv-with-f-35-hate.html
Update from the Galloping Beaver. It seems Stealth as predicted is not a long term thing. Now the full article in Wired covers its asp, but the implication is clear, Stealth will be defeated before the planes are actually deployed. What do you say now Pete?
http://thegallopingbeaver.blogspot.com/2011/06/revelations.html
Update from Mound of Sound, Harpers Canada, Americas sharp end of the spear.
http://the-mound-of-sound.blogspot.com/2011/06/what-does-f-35-mean-for-canada.html
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/plenty-of-blame-to-go-around-for-disappearing-warship/
http://www.economist.com/node/18958487
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/10/23/canadas-first-f-35-jets-wont-have-ability-to-communicate-in-arctic_n_1027335.html
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/09/senators-love-stealth-jet/
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/03/jsf-test/
March 22, 2012 Massive Fail
http://the-mound-of-sound.blogspot.ca/2012/04/f-35-killer-is-already-airborne.html
http://elpdefensenews.blogspot.com.au/p/f-35-reading-list.html
Update from the Galloping Beaver. It seems Stealth as predicted is not a long term thing. Now the full article in Wired covers its asp, but the implication is clear, Stealth will be defeated before the planes are actually deployed. What do you say now Pete?
http://thegallopingbeaver.blogspot.com/2011/06/revelations.html
Update from Mound of Sound, Harpers Canada, Americas sharp end of the spear.
http://the-mound-of-sound.blogspot.com/2011/06/what-does-f-35-mean-for-canada.html
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/plenty-of-blame-to-go-around-for-disappearing-warship/
http://www.economist.com/node/18958487
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/10/23/canadas-first-f-35-jets-wont-have-ability-to-communicate-in-arctic_n_1027335.html
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/09/senators-love-stealth-jet/
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/03/jsf-test/
March 22, 2012 Massive Fail
http://the-mound-of-sound.blogspot.ca/2012/04/f-35-killer-is-already-airborne.html
http://elpdefensenews.blogspot.com.au/p/f-35-reading-list.html
Useful post, and as we know the internet does not forget. This and other issues, sure hope the Canadian voter has a longer memory than a ADD two year old.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen such a crock since the Arrow was replaced with nuclear armed missiles that couldn't hit their target regardless. And yes, I was around when the aircraft carrier HMCS Bonaventure was trashed 2 years after a complete refit and a world beater hydroplane destroyer developed at the Bras d'Or Lakes in Cape Breton also went bye bye.
ReplyDeleteNice that you've tracked excellent Canadian sources too.
It's a shame you did not factor in the costs of running the F16, F18 and Harrier. It's replacing all these aircraft and up keep costs should factor how much does it cost to upkeep all of them compared to one jet? It may not be right for Canada I understand. Your foreign interests are committed enough for words only or if you have the US or UK to cover yours ***. Otherwise your just not committed. Maybe the US should keep it's nose out of your oir drilling interests in the artic. I'm sure Russia will negotiate fairly with a country that can't defend it's borders..............
ReplyDeleteone of the first points I made is that the cost of running the f35 is going to be three times the cost of running a F18. The second is the F35 is a jack of all trades, master on none.
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