I suppose the question is really if the dollars are being spent in the most efficient way to get the result. I don’t know, because that’s complicated and probably needs more digging than I can do for an NCD comment. I do know that much of the discussion is muddled by the three models of F35 all essentially being their own subprograms. Which makes it hard to follow certain news articles or critiques when they jump from model to model to make their points.
If it makes you feel better, the package to modernize A-10’s costs more per plane than a brand-new F-35. The F-35 has also become fairly cheap to maintain per flight hour over the past couple of years due to economies of scale. It’s now comparable to the F-16 in that regard.
Also, the controls and avionics are being adopted in the upgraded F-15s that will be produced soon
I’m team anti-A-10 for sure. The only reason that thing is still around is because the big gun is so thought terminatingly cool that it short circuits peoples’ ability to be rational. There’s an embarrassing Congressional hearing about retiring A-10s and a Senator (McCain I think) was arguing against the data with “But if big gun plane go away, where will big gun be?”
I suspected, vaguely, that a lot of F35 costs would trend down now that the R&D was done, and there is production ramping up.
F-22 isn’t in production anymore and it would be very expensive to start up production again. Much of the capacity to produce F-22 has been taken up by other programs such as F-35 meaning that they would need new capacity.
They actually had the opportunity to produce more F-22s with the Japanese government offering to buy and put forward a lot of money to produce more, but the US didn’t see the need for more of an air superiority platform
F-22 specializes in Air Superiority or clearing the skies. It wasn’t made for air to ground (even though it can do it today) In Afghanistan, there wasn’t a need for more air superiority
The f-35 has no peer, from a us perspective every dollar spent being ahead is a win.
I suppose the question is really if the dollars are being spent in the most efficient way to get the result. I don’t know, because that’s complicated and probably needs more digging than I can do for an NCD comment. I do know that much of the discussion is muddled by the three models of F35 all essentially being their own subprograms. Which makes it hard to follow certain news articles or critiques when they jump from model to model to make their points.
If it makes you feel better, the package to modernize A-10’s costs more per plane than a brand-new F-35. The F-35 has also become fairly cheap to maintain per flight hour over the past couple of years due to economies of scale. It’s now comparable to the F-16 in that regard.
Also, the controls and avionics are being adopted in the upgraded F-15s that will be produced soon
I’m team anti-A-10 for sure. The only reason that thing is still around is because the big gun is so thought terminatingly cool that it short circuits peoples’ ability to be rational. There’s an embarrassing Congressional hearing about retiring A-10s and a Senator (McCain I think) was arguing against the data with “But if big gun plane go away, where will big gun be?”
I suspected, vaguely, that a lot of F35 costs would trend down now that the R&D was done, and there is production ramping up.
How dare you speak such heresy against big gun in an NCD thread!
NCD has been long time A-10 haters.
The f-35 project is over budget and chock full of stupid expenses.
It still remains worth every penny for the US given it is a beyond peer platform, so is the f-22.
At the end of the day being able to win without question will almost always be worth the cost even if it was more than necessary.
Stick with f22
F-22 isn’t in production anymore and it would be very expensive to start up production again. Much of the capacity to produce F-22 has been taken up by other programs such as F-35 meaning that they would need new capacity.
They actually had the opportunity to produce more F-22s with the Japanese government offering to buy and put forward a lot of money to produce more, but the US didn’t see the need for more of an air superiority platform
F-22 specializes in Air Superiority or clearing the skies. It wasn’t made for air to ground (even though it can do it today) In Afghanistan, there wasn’t a need for more air superiority
Makes more sense, thank you
The US keeps the F-22 to itself already, but the F-35 is basically the NATO multirole fighter jet so the US has plenty of those too.