The F-35B STOVL variant of the Joint Strike Fighter comes off of it:
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Friday cleared a path for the Marine Corps’s version of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 stealth fighter jet, removing the beleaguered program from “probation” after he said sufficient progress was made to address technical problems.
Officials said Mr. Panetta’s decision shows the overall F-35 program remains a top priority investment for the U.S. to counter rising powers, particularly China, despite growing pressure on the Pentagon budget.
“We are and we have to remain the strongest military in the world. We are not going to back off from our position,” Mr. Panetta said in announcing the decision. “If we are going to be a world leader, we have got to maintain our military power.”
The announcement was a boost to Lockheed Martin and to the $382 billion Joint Strike Fighter program, which has been beset by cost overruns and development delays. The program is the Pentagon’s costliest weapons program.
Now we get to play the “cut objective inventory and watch unit costs spiral unaffordably” game.
Just you watch.
“Just you watch.”
As certain as the sun rising in the east, that Bears do it in the woods and that dogs’ d***s are red..
Yep.
Hmph. Personally, I think JSF is a Dead Program Walking. If Obama is re-elected, it’ll get killed to feed the Welfare Monster. If a Republican wins, it’ll get killed in favor of a F-22/F-16 mix for the USAF, and an F-18/NGAS mix for the Navy.
I agree, and what you propose as a replacement makes far greater fiscal sense. F-16′s based on the Israeli F-16I’s would be a good investment for ANG etc. I would add F-15SE’s to the mix, though, and I’d be curious to see if Boeing has more modifications in the pipeline for the F-18. F-18H/J models, perhaps?
Well, reworking the pylon alignment would be a big help.
Combine that with the big engines and you have a truly superb aircraft.
Yes, to all three, although I would love to see lots more Raptors.
We needs lots more 22s. I’d like to see a prototype of the “stealthy” Strike Eagle too. The 16 has a lot of life left in the design too, as long as they don’t get her too heavy with new mods.
“Now we get to play the “cut objective inventory and watch unit costs spiral unaffordably” game.”
followed instantly by the “blame everyone but me” game being played by everyone involved, leading inevitably to the “evil big corporations cheated us out of billions of dollars” game coming from the Obama administration.
I fully agree, but what program is going to be the bill-payer for this ever growing more expensive program? LCS is a potential, but that would mean union jobs getting cut. Even fewer ships and aircraft across the board might be their answer. JTRS is a good starting point though.
Tuna-I think you will find JTRS is dead.
Where the “savings” are going I do not know. I doubt another Joint program.
With really big bucks locked in for the F-35 program, that only guarantees deeper cuts in other programs.
The fact that the LCS has not already been terminated provides confirmation that insanity is still rampant inside the beltway.
I think it will be replaced with nothing. Obummer will get re-elected & burnish his “fiscally conservative” by canceling it & making sure his green energy follies & various vote- buying schemes are funded.
The F-35 is a steaming turd of a plane. We could’ve done a plane for the USAF & the Navy & gone with a different airframe that shared avionics & some parts with the other two. Instead, they went the other way & let the VTOL tail wag the JSF dig with disastrous results.
If I were running the show, the regular air force would get some new F-22s, F-16 Blk 60 & F-15SEs. The National Guard would get the last two.
The Navy would get Superbugs. And more Superbugs. Outside of ordering Sea Typhoons, Rafales & developing something built on the ashes of the F-35, there isn’t anything else.
Marines, enjoy your old Harriers & Superbugs.
Grizzledcoastie/
Agree all. Would add that the shame of it all is that there IS a niche–and a much needed one–for the current Harrier (as is presently constituted and utilized, allowing for electronic upgrades) in attached/embedded AD/mimi-cas for the Marine landing force–one the current version fills more than adequately as the only timely, on-the-scene, dedicated capability. The USMC tried to guild the Lilly with a gold-plated dream-boat. (But in one way I can’t blame them. Their logic went that they’d better jump on the F-35 train or be left behind at the station because the idiots in Congress would never fund an improved follow-on to the AV-8s or seriously upgrade the current version precisely because it IS a niche platform that wouldn’t survive any coming budget cuts. So from their perspective it was the 35 or nothing.)
A bit off topic, but I do believe Lex’s new employers are playing with the Navy here in Jax at NAS JAX. The local rag Friday reported on scattered complaints shouted down by the thousands of “FREE AIR SHOW!” from others regarding the all hour flights of Hornets, Hawkeys, Growlers and Kfirs…both of them. They must be complaining about the long take off run for the Israeli lawn darts heading east after take off…they must not be able to get to full climb till over Mandarin on the other side of the river…3/4 mile away
Seriously, my house isn’t that far from JAX and I can hear them the whole time I’m not at work. Sometimes when they’re coming back from over-ocean games they’ll fly over Mayport. Haven’t seen a Kfir but I expect they’re out there.
when I lived on the left south coast of Oregon, i wa sout in my front yard pruing Roses, whe I heard the distincive sound of BLC from an F-4 looked up and there was a Navy
marked F-4! doing a Slow turn aorund Port Orford, then
the F-4 went north and put the Burners on screamed over the town and went south a dot with a lot of smoke behind it.
This was about may of 1993.. had to be the last F-4s….
Lefty neighbor complained about it-to the USAF….
Kept calling it a “Air Force fighter” to several local
rags. No one bothered to set her straight…
Left south Oregon coast you say? Brookings or Gold Beach? Spent some time there during my youth in Cave Junction.
…Seems to remember that old joke that sometime by the 2020s the entire Defense budget will pay for exactly one airplane, that will be flown on alternate days by the USAF, USN, and USMC.
Assuming, of course, it’s not grounded for trying to kill its own pilots.
Mike
If they cut the STOVL version, they may as well cut LHA 6 and 7. Navy isn’t fooling anyone. A big deck AMPHIB without a well deck and an expanded hangar deck is just a pocket carrier. It can carry 20 F-35B, but can’t put a vehicle bigger than a HMMV on the beach.
“I’d buy more F-22/F-16/F-15s blah blah blah” Hindsight is 20/20 and who can honestly prove that the DoD would have been granted the same money to do that once the F-35 were cut at some point. As far as I’m concerned, unless you can build me a time machine to go back and change it, it doesn’t matter. At this point, it would be even more fiscally irresponsible to scrap it and buy upgrades for current aircraft. The problem with our economy isn’t the F-35, its the generation of entitled socialist left winged welfare state supporters who don’t believe in actually working for rewards. What has led to the national debt isn’t the F-35, it’s the fact that we don’t allow people to fail and bail them out instead.