What Now, Icarus? Is Western Combat Aviation Falling Out of the Sky?

[unhappycamper]

What Now, Icarus? Is Western Combat Aviation Falling Out of the Sky?
Winslow T. Wheeler
Director, Straus Military Reform Project, Center for Defense Information
Posted: October 28, 2009 05:16 PM

The future of Western combat aviation today rests largely on one airplane: The Pentagon's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

The Defense Department currently plans to buy 2,456 of these Lockheed aircraft for the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps. As a "multi-role" fighter-bomber, it will ultimately replace almost all tactical aircraft now in our inventory, except for the F-22, for which production beyond 187 aircraft was canceled this past summer. Major allies, including Britain and much of the rest of Western Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Israel, plan to buy the aircraft. Sales to many others are postulated, and those who do not intend to buy the F-35 plan to copy it to the extent their treasuries, government bureaucracies, and technological development permit.

There are, however, a few problems. The F-35 is unaffordable. It is a technological kluge that will be less effective than airplanes it replaces. And it will increase our own combat losses.

That is not the consensus now; many will vociferously dispute each of the assertions stated above, and below. But, in time the finger pointing will start. That's when someone will have to pick up the pieces to give our pilots a war winning aircraft. The road between here and there will be neither smooth nor pretty, but it is time to take the first step.

A financial disaster? How can that be? Visiting the F-35 plant in Fort Worth, Texas last August, Secretary of D Robert Gates assured us that the F-35 will be "less than half the price ... of the F-22."


Rest of article about this $239 million dollar POS at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/winslow-t-wheeler/what-now-icarus-is-wester_b_337564.html

[Fumesucker]

1. I didn't know this...

The A-10, which the F-35 will also replace, cost about $15 million in today's dollars.


The F 35 is going to replace the A-10 *and* the F-22, that's insane, those are two utterly disparate combat roles.. It's like replacing an Abrams and a Hummer with the same vehicle.

[unhappycamper]

2. It's too bad the Veterans archive went bye bye.

I had $$$$s on many of the weapons systems directly from military rags.

I know the Osprey is $70 million, the FA-18 is $68 million, the F-22 is $355 million, the C-17 is $212 million and the F-35 is $239 million.

[Fumesucker]

3. Replacing a $15 million plane with a $239 million plane is nuts..

Beyond the fact that I don't see how one plane could possibly do the F-22 role and the A-10 role with anything like decent performance in both..

Damn, this is discouraging in the extreme.

[natrat]

4. with the country beyond broke it is a bit strange, as are expensive pointless wars

[unhappycamper]

5. I guess we could hang a Mission Accomplished banner on the MIC. n/t

[TornadoTN]

6. That's really puzzling to me as well

Of course, the F-35 has a VTOL variant that does allow it to perform low speed combat support roles. But it's still nothing like the A-10, which could take a beating like no other combat aircraft and still do its job and make it home safely.



I don't see the F-35 doing that job as well as the A-10. Ask any Army/Marine Infantry unit how valuable the A-10 is in combat. The VTOL Harrier "Jump-Jet" was used in this role and it couldn't perform anywhere near that of the A-10.

[FarCenter]

7. Other "Western Combat Aviation" includes the Gripen, Rafale, and Typhoon

"F-35 competitors include the Saab AB Gripen, the Dassault Aviation SA' Rafale, Russia's MiG-35 and Sukhoi Su-35, and the Eurofighter Typhoon"

from http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE55A3FX20090611