Note the great "analysis" from Australia's New Air Combat Capability (NACC) office (read copy-paste from Lockmart). Still trying to figure out what--if any--value the NACC brings to the taxpayer other than mindless cheerleading for the seller of the aircraft.
(click image to make bigger)
Update: U.S. DOD announcement January 2012. The graphic below, representing yearly orders only going to 2016 as this is the year some--like Canada--state great advantage in F-35 price because of that year representing "peak production".
9 comments:
I believe the RQ-170 lost in Iran is much bigger deal than people like it to be. Current stealth implementation is broken. This is if they even know how broken, what sort of gear Iran was using to detect and track RQ-170. F-35 therefore can't go into hostile airspace as advertize without all sort of complicated maneuver rendering it into a fat F-16.
It is definitely not a close air support lane.
The proof is in the pudding. We'll see if they go forward with F-35 relatively inferior flight characteristic. Betting nobody can fatally cripple the stealth feature.
sidozThe famous hockey stick graph again!
Read the new article just published by ARES and Bill, from what US officials are saying, there wasn't all that much lost. I believe the US officials more than Iranian officials anyways. Look at the missile Iran just launched:so called super technology and crap, it's a modified SA-2, you really think it could compare to a Patriot/S300 or HQ10?
From what US official is saying, considering how many Reapers/Predators have been lost, I guess the US assumes that all that technology is in the hands of Russia or China already, so how much would they really gain by looking at RQ?
IMHO, RQ was just a slightly more LO and reconfigurable Predator.
ELP, keep that chart coming, I get a good laugh every time I see it, even though as a taxpayer, it sucks.
Anon, I actually think the whole claim of 'hacking' the controls by cyber unit is a bluff and simple poke at US.
Given that this aircraft was a highly complex Lockmart prototype aircraft, it's most likely that either an electrical failure caused loss of FCS, and/or an engine failure of some sort sent the aircraft into a death-spiral which auto-deployed a parachute for soft landing in the desert somewhere.
Latest breaking news seems to suggest there will actually be yet again another F-35 'restructuring' this year; the third year in as many years.
The issue with the RQ-170 is that China has close ties with Iran and my guess is that they've already had a close look at it.
The FMV camera and the radar reflective optical window all might find a home in the J-20. Also the dual SATCOM antenna will be interesting to the Chinese and more advanced then anything they're currently using.
Since this is a Lockmart drone I also wonder if the structural fiber mat material used by the F-35 for RCS reduction is now in foreign/Chinese hands.
The Future Military: Your Budget Strategy
On the New York times website, an interactive page where one can hypothetically suggest Defense Budget cuts. You can even submit your results. It includes a section for F-35 cancellation or reduction.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/01/02/us/you-cut-the-defense-budget.html?choices=4db00000
You don't fly a experimental drone over an enemy country without anticipating you'll lose it.
Stealth isn't magic, it's common sense application of the EM spectrums properties.
I wonder what Smith will do now.
Sounds expensive, rebuild the A&B or order more SH?
Norway is putting new wings on their F16's.
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