{"id":189277,"date":"2010-04-24T18:17:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-24T23:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2010\/04\/24\/your-jsf-update\/"},"modified":"2010-04-24T18:17:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-24T23:17:00","slug":"your-jsf-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2010\/04\/24\/your-jsf-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Your JSF Update"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Carrier Drop test h\/t Graham Warwick<\/a>
<\/span><\/div>\n

First and Foremost, I think that we need to start with the cost escalation of the F-35, with the unit cost estimates having escalated from $113.6 million to 136.2 million over just the past few weeks<\/a>, which has triggered an official notification of a Nunn-McCurdy breach to Congress<\/a>, which means that the price has escalated by more than 50%.<\/p>\n

In the interest of fairness, Lockheed-Martin is rejecting the Pentagon numbers<\/a>, and claiming that they will hit, or at least come closer to the original numbers, based on \u2026\u2026\u2026 I’m not entirely sure what, possibly reading chicken entrails.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, both Italy and the Netherlands are making noises about scaling back their purchases\/commitment to the program<\/a>, (paid subscription required<\/span>)with the Italians demanding a larger workshare, and the Dutch wondering if the entire thing is simply too dam expensive.<\/p>\n

Note that the Dutch are supposed to participate in the Initial Operational Test & Evaluation (IOT&E), purchasing 2 aircraft, but they have only contracted for one, and they can sell the aircraft instead of participating in IOT&E.<\/p>\n

It all hinges on the upcoming elections.<\/p>\n

On the brighter side for the program the first F-35 with a full sensor suite has flown<\/a>, sort of<\/span>:<\/p>\n

The mission system installed for the initial flight includes the APG-81 active electronically scanned array radar, EW system, integrated CNI, integrated core processor and the pilot’s helmet-mounted display. The electro-optical targeting sensor and 360-deg EO distributed aperture system will be added later.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(emphasis mine<\/span>)<\/p>\n

So the most low observable sensor, and the sensor that is supposed to allow the aircraft to compete against more maneuverable aircraft by giving the pilot a 360\u00b0 field of view around his aircraft are not yet flying.<\/p>\n

Finally, we have an analysis showing that the F-16 in 1998 out-ranges the F-35<\/a>. Basically a 1998 PowerPoint slide for the F-16 gives a 630 NM radius with conformal fuel tanks on a strike mission on a hi-lo-lo-hi profile with the final 50 NM in and out on the deck, as versus a 728 NM radius for the F-35, which only pops below 5000 feet once.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the F-16 carries 2 GBU-10 2000 lb bombs + 2 Sidewanders + 2 AMRAAM, while the F-35 carries 2 AMRAAM + 2 GBU-12 500 lb bombs.<\/p>\n

If the F-16 is just carrying 2 AMRAAM + 2 GBU-12, and conducts its operations above at 5000 feet or above, it out-ranges the F-35, and that’s without considering that the F-16 numbers include the drag of an external jamming pod, and modern F-16s have internal jammers.<\/p>\n

Finally, for your viewing pleasure, some the Jim Lerher’s News Hour has a segment on the F-35 that appears to cover all the bases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carrier Drop test h\/t Graham Warwick First and Foremost, I think that we need to start with the cost escalation of the F-35, with the unit cost estimates having escalated from $113.6 million to 136.2 million over just the past few weeks, which has triggered an official notification of a Nunn-McCurdy breach to Congress, which …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1007,1038,1008,984],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aviation","category-budget","category-defense-procurement","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189277"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189277\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}