Lockheed F-35 Bad Deal as One Jet for All, Report Finds

[unhappycamper]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-17/lockheed-f-35-bad-deal-as-one-jet-for-all-report-finds.html



Lockheed F-35 Bad Deal as One Jet for All, Report Finds
By Tony Capaccio
2013-12-17T21:30:35Z

Lockheed Martin Corp.’s (LMT) F-35 jet fighter, designed by the Pentagon to serve the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, is likely to end up costing more than it would to build separate planes for each service, a Rand Corp. study has found.

“Under none of the plausible conditions we analyzed did” the F-35 “have a lower life-cycle cost estimate,” Rand, a nonprofit research institution, said in the report released this week on the plane known as the Joint Strike Fighter.

The report questions a fundamental tenet of the Pentagon’s costliest weapons program -- that building different versions on a common base will reduce costs. Rand analyzed an estimated $1.5 trillion “life-cycle cost” that includes acquisition plus long-term support of the fleet.

The Pentagon projects a price tag of $391.2 billion to build a fleet of 2,443 F-35s, a 68 percent increase from the projection in 2001, measured in current dollars. The number of aircraft the Pentagon plans to buy is 409 fewer than called for originally.

[friendly_iconoclast]

1. F-111 redux...

[caraher]

2. Yes

Though I was amused while watching an Australian-produced new piece on their possible purchase of the F-35 that they referred to their own F-111s in glowing terms...

[friendly_iconoclast]

3. The F-111 became a not-bad medium bomber/recon/EW platform-

...eventually

Problem is, it was *sold* as being a money saving, all-purpose airplane for
all forces. It soon became clear it was never going to become an interceptor. That
only became obvious after much coin was spent...