F-35 looking more like white elephant AFP/File – Visitors take a closer look at a Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jet at the Singapore Airshow 2010. The …
by Mathieu Rabechault Mathieu Rabechault –
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The F-35 fighter jet, set to replace a large part of the US warplane fleet, has become the most expensive weapons program ever, drawing increased scrutiny at a time of tight public finances.
Following a series of cost overruns and delays, the program is now expected to cost a whopping 382 billion dollars, for 2,443 aircraft.
The so-called 5th generation fighter was built with features designed to help avoid enemy radar and ensure American supremacy in the skies for decades.
But there is now the potential for competition from China, which this week unveiled its first radar-evading combat aircraft and fueled a sense of a military rivalry between the two powers.
At home, the Lockheed Martin F-35 is getting increased criticism even from some at the Pentagon.
[Related: India will soon fly first fighter jet built at home]
Defense officials say the original cost estimates have now doubled to make each plane’s price tag reach some 92 million dollars.
At the same time, the contract awarded in 2001 had been planned to last 10 years, but has been extended to 2016 because of testing and design issues.
Lockheed Martin, which is working with Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems, is developing three versions of the aircraft, which are being designed for ground attack as well as reconnaissance missions.
The F-35A is designed to replace the F-16 and A-10 of the US Air Force, while the F-35C is designed for deployment on aircraft carriers to supplant to F-18, and the F-35B would have a vertical takeoff capacity and replace Harrier aircraft.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has warned the cost overruns cannot continue and expressed particular concern over the short take-off and vertical landing variant.
“The culture of endless money that has taken hold must be replaced by a culture of restraint,” he said recently.
For the short-takeoff version, Gates has ordered “the equivalent of a two-year probation,” adding that “if we cannot fix this variant during this time frame and get it back on track in terms of performance, cost and schedule, then I believe it should be canceled.”
As part of a cost-saving drive, the Pentagon chief has decided to delay the purchase of 124 of the 449 units of this version until 2016.
Another bone of contention is a second engine being developed for the fighter by General Electric and Rolls Royce in case the Pratt & Whitney engine is not up to par. Gates contends this second engine is “unneeded.”
Private analysts say the whole F-35 program is becoming a money pit.
“The incredibly unfortunate phrase ‘too big to fail’ applies to this aircraft more than any other defense program,” said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace industry analyst with the Teal Group.
[Related: Chinese stealth fighter makes first test flight]
“It’s difficult to think of a civil or military program in the past decade that hasn’t experienced similar delays and cost overruns.”
Still, it may be hard to make many changes to the F-35 program because Britain and seven other countries have been closely involved in its development.
The United States is covering 90 percent of the cost of the development but has participation from Britain, Italy, Turkey, the Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Australia.
Other nations, including Israel and Singapore, have signed contracts to buy the plane.
“The US wants a globalized JSF program for a combination of strategic and economic reasons,” said Aboulafia.
“It greatly simplifies logistics, training and doctrine for coalition warfighting. Dominating the military aerospace export business is certainly a strong draw, too. It’s as much an industrial policy as a fighter.”
The F-35’s maximum speed is a little disappointing (1100mph). Even the Hornet is slightly faster. There is no real data on how the F-35 turns and burns.
The Rand report was a little shocking, but I think most of that report was political. I mean the F-35 must be as good as the F-16.
If they are going to produce only 187 F-22s they might as well not produce the plane at all. I seems now Gates is only interested in 180mph drones.
I believe Israel and Japan will eventually go with the silent eagle if they cannot get an export version of the F-22.
Besides Japan needs a fighter that has two engines because many of their missions will be over the sea.
Why was Ehud Barak adamant for purchasing it?
In July I posted an item about STEALTH PAINT: Israel’s newest secret weapon.
Since July and August I can’t find another ref. to this paint or company Nanaoflight.
Why should Israel have committed to purchase 5 $ billion on a white elephant when we have a home grown solution to a strategic problem that costs relatively peanuts?
Paint drones with the stuff and let them do the job.
Why is Gates so adamant about this fighter? He cancelled the vastly superior F-22 for the F-35, which is in danger of becoming a jack-of-all-trades and master of none type fighter. The plane is also becoming too heavy and could end up resembling the P-39(iron dog) of WW2. Didn’t we learn with the F-4 phantom from the Vietnam era that one fighter cannot be asked to accomplish all tasks for both services? I am afraid the F-35 will end up costing more than the superior F-22. What was the point?
The USAF never was enthusiastic about the F-35, but it has been forced down their throats. Most experts stated the F-22 was the plane the USAF needed, and now China has a clone of the F-22. Why didn’t Gates listen to the experts?
China is not a military threat, it is a commercial threat. The military threat thing is put out by the Pentagon to justify its unlimited use of taxpayer dollars.
The F-35 should be cancelled. For about a third of the cost of that, we could buy the fleet of approx. 700 F-22s that the Air Force originally wanted. At least we already know how to produce that plane, it is roundly considered quite effective, it is much faster and longer legged than the F-35, and with reduced unit costs from a production run of that size, it may well come close to the projected unit cost of the F-35. It would be as good as or better than anything China or Russia is testing along those lines (same can’t be said for the F-35), which they won’t have operationally for at least five years anyway.
Right now, I’ve saved two-thirds of the cost of the F-35 program and ensured American air dominance for quite some time to come.
For another third of that money, I’d buy a bunch of late-model F-16I-type fighters to replace the relevant “legacy” fleet, and the new semi-stealthy F-15 “Silent Eagle” to replace that “legacy” fleet. And, I’d replace the remainder of the Navy’s “legacy” Hornets with Super Hornets (that’s one of the reasons they insisted on getting the Super Hornet in the first place, as a hedge against a possibly failed F-35 program). Same goes for the Marines.
As to American being in “irreversible decline”, maybe in isolation, but I think BlandOatmeal has it right when you look at the larger picture. Besides, I recall that under our last wimp apologist president (Carter), a lot of people were saying the same thing. And then along came Reagan.
We’ve got our problems, and leadership tops the list, but that can change.
China has a lot of problems, too.
I’m not making firm predictions either way on the U.S. versus China, or the recommended direction of Israeli foreign policy in terms of alliances. I consider a U.S./Israel/India axis ideal, and it may happen, but if the U.S. is dumb enough to re-elect Obama, then Israel will almost certainly have to look elsewhere for strategic partners.
In any case, as to the aid issue, if I were Israel, I’d gladly forego the $3 billion in aid in exchange for a firm bilateral defense treaty, no-expiration-date support in the UN, and the assumed ability to buy whatever weapons I want from the U.S. that I’m willing to pay for, whenever I want them. In other words, the same status as an ally that, for example, South Korea has with the U.S. (that is my benchmark for the bare minimum of respect/consideration that Israel should demand from the U.S.).
yamit82,
you have a warped and backwards way of thinking…..
I am aware that America gives Israel credits to purchase 75% of those credits in America which are recycled so as to make the actual amt. negligible by macro economic standards. We lose much more than we gain.
Yes anti tank missiles that will be turned against us when we next invade Lebanon. France supports our right to exist though.
China seems to be but they are not immune from a lot of external and external problems of their own. Officially they have 5% inflation in reality it’s closer to ten%. They must create almost two million new jobs per month just to stay even. America is putting the screws to them by exporting American inflation and debasing the dollar. The Chinese are not happy campers. The Chinese are willing in the interim to keep their largest markets from going south in order to protect their own industries and workforce. Even the Chinese don’t have that much reserve currencies to support both America and EU. In the long run they will all collapse. Commodities and food will become scarce and prices will climb creating civil unrest in every country on the globe. None of this has anything to do with Israel but Debt does and the creditor nations will call the shots over the indebted ones. America is about to collapse the global economic system over everyone’s heads.
and you have serious issues with the u.s ?
The 50% who do pay taxes pay an ever decreasing portion of American expenditures. QE1 QE2 and a lot of borrowing pays a good part. Americas debt service amounts to almost 400 billion and rising. Do your own math. The aid America gives Israel in nominal dollars is about the same when it was first initiated of around 3 b but deduct inflation from those 1983 dollars and the high cost of American products had diminished that same 3 billion of 1983 to about a half billion in real purchasing power. An amt easily made up by reforms within our own systems and increased donations to UJA and sales of Israel bonds.
Thank You, and pls stop giving us more aid.
Looks like HWSNBN has crawled out from under his lonely rock again.
Harris I disagree with you re: America as a declining power and the collapse of the American economy in the coming years will substantiate my contention. I never said that Americas global position will be assumed by China or anyone else. Quite possible there won’t be anyone to fill the vacuum left by America, possibly regional alliances both economic and military. Don’t know how it will finally play out but a major shift of power is now taking place slowly today but can quicken as events overtake our current realities. Global war can’t be ruled out and if it comes it won’t resemble anything we have known in the past.
reminds me a lot of—— read: August 1914 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Barbra Tuchman’s The Guns of August
Harris you do have a point at least as an explanation of why Jewish support for Israel seems to be decreasing year by year. Since 67 and especially since Oslo; Israel is no longer viewed as a winner by younger Jews. Everybody likes and seems to support winners as opposed to Losers. Israel the strong conqueror of 67 is reduced to a slobbering bunch of cowards pleading with our enemies to take back what we took from them in 67′. Nobody supports a vassal state who rejects her own sovereignty and is willing to sell it to whomever offers the best price or imposes their will through political pressure.
Israel will never be a truly independent and sovereign state until the Galut(exile) mentality is totally expunged from our collective national psyches.
I have no belief that even if we met every objection from most of the Jews secular or religious that very many will ever seriously contemplate moving to Israel. That said I have no confidence that Western Jewry will continue to exist as a vibrant and identifiable Jewish community in as little as two more generations. From Israels POV the writing is already written on the wall and we should neither expect much from this group nor should we expend much effort or capital in trying to maintain the fiction of Jewry united. We aren’t united and the gulf between us is growing not narrowing.
American Jewry is losing statistically about 100 Jews a day to assimilation. Do your own math. Whether you want to hear the truth or not the only thing that will in the end save N. American Jewry is Israel, where even a secular nationalistic Israel is better than the dying a slow cultural and religious death in the West. European Jewry had a narrow window in which to escape their fate They choose the wrong options.
American Jewry can leave today with their assets in tact. Tomorrow or next year? Who knows? I won’t even raise the prophetic basis to what I am saying but only the real politik, demographic stats. and history.
I will add after-all some religious perspective, I can’t help myself I guess. The divine plan for Jews is either to let us perish as a people, or to be left only in Israel. The messianic scenario involves substantially all Jews moving to the Land of Israel. The Bible recognizes King Cyrus a messiah even though most Jews refused to return to Israel; the messiah need not return everyone. There are two ways to assure that almost all Jews return: make everyone return, or make those who don’t return perish. Jews refused the first option, so we may be witnessing the second one unfolding.
yeah your right!
the next annual 3 billion dollars the u.s gives israel…….send it back
and tell washington,
“how dare you exspect israel to buy u.s equipment with the money you give us”
that will show them!!!!
stealth,that stuff dont work,
u.s never invented nothing,
u.s never gave nobody nothing
and most of all they never helped NO ONE!!!!!!
do you see how rediculous that sounds??????????
LIKE A SPOILED CHILD!!!!!!
Arnold Harris said,
I don’t think that’s the case, Arnold, with most American Jews. I even doubt it’s the case with you. Why haven’t you made aliyah? Because of Israel’s foreign policy? Or because of personal financial reasons? After the 1967 War, when Israel was highly independent and had just performed a military miracle, there was a little blip in aliyah from America, which gradually dwindled. In 1948, Israel was even more independent of the US, but there was no massive American aliyah. Money is the reason, not politics.
Yamit,
I can’t argue with you about which weapons system is the best, as I’m simply not interested enough in the subject to devote my life for it. I have to fall back on common sense, which tells me
(1) A few of camel-jockeys from Arabia, armed with box cutters, not only killed 3000 innocent people 0n 9/11, but have been able to turn the average American into a fear-crazed security junky, willing to sell his family’s wealth, privacy and dignity to Big Brother in return for security from unseen and unidentified “enemies”.
(2) That the US and its allies, who plan to shell out $150,000,000.00 each for their next generation of flying machines and are able to drop bombs down chimneys, has not been able to stop the camel jockeys and their box cutters.
So what’s the best weapon against Achmadinejad, bin Laden et al? $150,000,000 bombers? They don’t work. How about recruiting and training terrorists, and sending them to Iran with box cutters? What’s the best weapons system? I would think that an air force of Piper Cubs, flown by trained pilots under the command of honest and intelligent leaders, is worth all the F-35s in the world.
All that said, your estimation of the US as a “declining power” is overblown. The Chinese are still unable to produce serviceable engines for their aircraft; and it will be many, many decades before they can compete with a truly unified West. I’m not saying this to ridicule China; to the contrary, half my family lives there and I may well retire there; but the US-led West has incredible strength. China has yet to strike a free trade agreement with Japan and Korea, much less a military deal; but the US is linked by a very active NATO alliance with Western Europe, as well as very active military and economic ties with giants such as Japan, S. Korea and Australia, and a free trade agreement with Canada (and Mexico, which is something like a Western Hemisphere India). Europe, meanwhile, is linked not only by a free trade agreement but by a common market, a federal political union and, to a large extent, a common currency. It is that same Europe that are joint developers of the F-35. And if you ever learned math in school, these figures might impress you:
USA: Ten nuclear carriers, the largest and most efficient in the world
France: One nuclear carrier — pretty good, but some history of mechanical trouble
All the rest: nothing.
You’re boasting from a country that is all ga-ga over its five nuclear-capable diesel submarines. I’m glad for the submarines, but the time for boasting is a long way off.
If you want to learn a lesson from history, study the battle of Wagram. Napoleon was an able tactician, with a history of repeatedly defeating armies much larger than his own; but he didn’t rely on tactics at Wagram. Instead, he launched a costly frontal attack against the Austrians that won by sheer brute force. That broke the Austrians’ spirit, and caused them to sue for peace. If the US is in decline, as you say, I wouldn’t take solace in the fact. Instead, I would want to hide myself from the Wagram to come. The end is near, but not here.
Spending $140 million dollars to purchase each of several foreign-made aircraft, which can be shot out of the sky by a guy using an up-to-date version of the cheap Stinger missiles the USA surreptitiously air-dropped to the Mujahadin so their rag-heads could shoot down Soviet fighter-bombers in the late 1980s, is a bad investment.
And why is Israel still buying overpriced American military aircraft in any case? I still remember the Lavi fighter-bomber project of some 20 years ago or so. A real advanced fighter designed to be built and armed strictly in Israel and which could be sold as such to other countries, more or less like flying versions of the old Uzi submachine guns. Who were the assholes that let Washington bully them out of producing that plane?
When in hell will you folks stop licking the asses of the rulers of fading empires? Because that’s exactly what you are dealing with here, and it will stay that way unless we are able to retire from the White House the African Moslem anti-imperialist who now at least pretends to call the shots in Washington. Even then, you have to start acting like an independent state.
You want aliya and lots of it, right? But have you ever stopped to think that one of the considerations that keeps so many American Jews from pulling up stakes and moving to Israel is that they don’t want to live in a colony whose existence is endlessly dangled by their feckless imperialist bosses in distant Washington DC?
Think it over.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
yamit82,
you have a warped and backwards way of thinking…..
you are aware the u.s gives your country billions of dollars every year(with a b).
you are aware france is in the process of selling lebanon missiles.
you are aware china and iran are economic partners that are growing stronger every year.
and you have serious issues with the u.s ?
the only one i see walking away from the deal WITH NOTHING IS THE AMERICAN TAX PAYER…….AND THAT INCLUDES NOT EVEN A THANK YOU!!!!!
I’s been reading the comments on the F35 and also earlier comments especially by yamit82. I have learned a lot about the pros and cons of different options. But the major lesson is that Israeli leaders are not only politically corrupt but also spiritually corrupt in their sick belief in wanting to remain dependent on an America that is in decline and which has a long history of betrayal. For Israel to survive with so much stupidity and corruption, there must be a G-d.
Randy your blog is missing a whole year?
Given up?
The F-35 design is over 10yrs old. Radar defenses have advanced much further and it’s combat stealth effectiveness to my mind is in doubt. I like electronic jammers better. They cost peanuts in comparison or using an Israeli invention of radar absorbent paint. Military industrial complexes want the big fancy mega expensive projects and so do the politicians and Top military brass. Since most air to air and air to ground weapons systems are standoff long-range, the performance of the aircraft is second to weapons payload and the avionics built-in. Nobody has better or more cost effective avionics than does Israel. We are a perfect fit for China, Russia, India, Japan and even France. Israel could take that J-20 and upgrade it to be the best in the world and if not the best lets say good enough. That’s our Forte. Believe me when I say we don’t need America except as a psychological crutch for scared incompetent and mostly by now corrupted leaders in both out military and in our political echelons.
America can f….ck over Israel but lets see how they fare after screwing China? Between China and India I still pick India but can see a workable relationship with the Chinese.
???????????? . . .
Israels decision to purchase the F-35 goes to the heart of our national sickness. This is a plane eve the U S air-force doesn’t want. The decision making process in Israel is a disgrace and everyone knows it. We have a case of always the tail wagging the dog. This is another example of our political and military corrurpt and incompetent leaders placing Israels long term interests on the alter of short term political expediency and appeasement to our Washington Masters.
Problem is when the chickens come home to roost most if not all of the decision makers will be long gone and there won’t be anyone claiming responsibility.
Yamit’s Blast from the PAST: See Here
Just imagine Israel’s position today had the Lavi fighter jet project not been canceled.