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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (35988)	7/17/2009 1:23:58 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71588

That is exactly what Gates and the Pentagon is pushing. Which is one of the reasons I mentioned it. More capable for the mission and more effective for the dough. That's rather questionable. The problem with the F-35 (in addition to not being available yet) is it has a lot of the same problems with high cost per unit, and maintenance time and costs that the F-22 is facing. In terms of the maintenance for the stealth coating (which is most of the F-22's maintenance problem, and also impacts the B-2, and impacted the F-117) its pretty much exactly the same problem. In terms of other costs the flyaway cost for the F-35 (at least for the first several hundred of them) might be as high as the F-22s. The F-22 will have more total cost per unit, but that because of the R&D cost which is already spent, we don't save any of that money by buying fewer F-22s. If the F-22 program had never started, but the F-35 program had, than the high cost for the program might justify not having it. If the program hadn't started it might make sense to hold off for a decade or two and make a high end fighter then, or perhaps with advancement in drones we'd make drone fighters (Lower costs and higher potential maneuverability, would be balanced by the concern of jamming, and lower situational awareness for remote pilots.) But now we've spent most of the extra costs for the F-22 already. The R&D costs, the costs to start the production line, and optimize production techniques has largely been paid (some of the third category of costs may not have, but the other two have been completely paid). As for capability the F-22 is more capable air to air, and also stealthier (which helps for some air to ground work).