U.S. mulls big order for F-35s in 2018

[TexasTowelie]

The U.S. Defense Department is considering an order for as many as 450 F-35 aircraft from Lockheed Martin starting in fiscal 2018, sending warplane output to the fastest pace in three decades, as it gains confidence in the advanced fighter’s performance.

The purchase would total 150 jets annually over three years and would include aircraft destined for international customers, Undersecretary Frank Kendall, the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer, told reporters during a conference call on Friday from Norway, where he was attending an annual meeting of F-35 customers and producers. The deal could potentially yield “double-digit” savings, Kendall said.

That production rate would be “far more than the world has seen for any combat plane since the 1980s,” said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace and defense analyst with Teal Group, a Virginia-based consultant.

The order would be a big boost for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in west Fort Worth, where the F-35 is being built. Currently, about 8,800 people are at work on the F-35 program in Fort Worth and officials have said that more than 1,000 jobs could be added as the plane progresses to full-rate production.

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/news/business/article22598592.html

[NEVER SUMMER]

1. Except DoD doesn't need them.

F-35 is a blackhole sucking up important dollars that could be spent elsewhere.

Zero orders for DoD, and keep up the other aircrafts.

[Rosco T.]

6. .. read more closely ..

",,,would include aircraft destined for international customers"

Zero orders for the DOD... other all they want.

[kentuck]

2. The jewel in the TPP?

That will balance out the trade deficit. Not in jobs but in money.

[catnhatnh]

3. How does one "gain confidence"

...in a piece of shit? For ground support it has only 180 rounds that it may be able to fire in several years if they can de-bug the software. The Navy version has a sad history of arresting hooks ripping the plane apart. The Marine VSTOL routinely melts the flight decks of aircraft carriers. The flight helmet alone costs more than a new Cessna...

Ah America....

[tammywammy]

7. The arresting hook has been fixed.

Last edited Sat May 30, 2015, 06:46 PM - Edit history (1)

The CV was tested last year and every carrier landing was 100% success.

The STOVL is currently on the USS Wasp for OT. Video here: http://aviationweek.com/video/f-35b-operational-test-trials

The Marines will declare the STOVL IOC this year.

[Bigmack]

4. We all know that it can't perform as advertised...

.. that it's hugely expensive... that it has no mission....

But you are missing the whole point...

It LOOKS REALLY COOL AND IT GOES ZOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!

[Sherman A1]

5. Precisely

It would make much more sense and be far less expensive to simply replace the current generation of aircraft with the same aircraft replacing worn out airframes with new production of proven (and paid for) designs.

[A HERETIC I AM]

8. I read an article years ago that stated the primary reason for the formation of the Air Force....

That is, to make it completely separate from the Army Air Corps that it was in WW II, boils down to very little more than what you stated.

There are aviation fanatics in the military and having an Air Force ensures that there will always be really cool airplanes for the Colonels to fly.

[Bigmack]

9. Why not look into pilotless planes?

I understand that carrying a living pilot eats into performance and payload, and multiplies costs.

All this ignoring the fact that the last successful attacks we suffered on American soil by foreign attackers were carried out by a bunch of guys with box cutters, and therefore not much of a target for fighter jets.

The much-vaunted Taliban and ISIS air forces are incapable - at this point - of attacking us by air, so perhaps the hundreds of F-15s and F-18s we currently have can protect us from those fearsome military powers.

We're talking about spending $1.5 Trillion on a weapon with no mission that we can see at this point. That kind of money for a contingency weapon is ridiculous.