{"id":189916,"date":"2010-01-30T06:53:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-30T11:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2010\/01\/30\/f-35-update\/"},"modified":"2010-01-30T06:53:00","modified_gmt":"2010-01-30T11:53:00","slug":"f-35-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2010\/01\/30\/f-35-update\/","title":{"rendered":"F-35 Update"},"content":{"rendered":"
Click for full size<\/p>\n
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<\/a> H\/t ELP Defens(c)e Blog<\/a>
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So, the F-35 B has finally engaged its lift fan in flight<\/a>, (video below) which is a step toward, but considering the fact the aircraft flew only 10% of the scheduled test flights in 2009<\/a>, I guess you take what you can.<\/p>\n

The bigger news is about the F-35 C model, where a study has been released showing that it will be significantly more expensive to operate than its predecessors<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Moreover, NAVAIR estimates the total of 680 short take-off and vertical landing F-35Bs and carrier-variant F-35Cs, ordered by the US Marine Corps and USN, respectively, will cost $30,700 to fly each hour. This compares to $18,900 for the Boeing AV-8B Harrier II and Boeing F\/A-18A-D, the aircraft types the Joint Strike Fighter will replace.<\/p>\n

Although NAVAIR projects the F-35 will fly 12% fewer flight hours than the AV-8B and F\/A-18A-D fleets, the agency expects the modern aircraft to cost as much as about 25% more to operate at peak rates, the briefing says.<\/p>\n

The unexpected cost increases mean the F-35 “will have a significant impact on naval aviation affordability”, the NAVAIR document concludes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Note that this is competing against an F\/A-18 with 2 engines, and roughly the same level of installed thrust and weight.<\/p>\n

In fact, it is more expensive to operate than the F-15 Eagle, which is significantly larger, but costs only $30,000\/hour to operate<\/a> and only slightly less than that of the F-22, which is nearly twice the size, and costs $44,000\/hour to fly. (scroll down)<\/p>\n

When the inevitable costs escalation is included, and part of the hourly cost is the amortization of the initial purchase, I think that the “smaller cheaper” F-35 will be nearly the cost of the F-22.<\/p>\n

I do not consider this an argument for the F-22, just an argument for a 2nd<\/sup> tier that costs less (inflation adjusted) than an F-4 Phantom to operate.<\/p>\n

The US has air dominance because it dominates the situational awareness in any potential conflict, which is done with things like advanced communications, AWACS, etc., not a plane that can break mach 1 in a vertical climb.<\/p>\n

Lockheed-Martin’s response is that the study is “not definitive<\/a>,” which is defense contractor speak for, “I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for your meddling kids.”<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click for full size H\/t ELP Defens(c)e Blog So, the F-35 B has finally engaged its lift fan in flight, (video below) which is a step toward, but considering the fact the aircraft flew only 10% of the scheduled test flights in 2009, I guess you take what you can. The bigger news is about …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1007,1008,1027],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aviation","category-defense-procurement","category-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189916"}],"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=189916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189916\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}