One of the reasons for the PR silence could be that the Dutch election--where the troubled and expensive F-35 is an inflammatory issue--is only 4 weeks away.
It is unclear why this historical moment for the Royal Air Force is not noised data. The manufacturer Lockheed Martin normally consults with a client, press releases, believed to be from The Hague that the preference was given to wait a press release, taking into account the reaction of Lockheed Martin told the press: "We will need to refer you the Netherlands Ministry of Defence office for specifics surrounding the first flight of the Dutch F-35. "
2 comments:
I suspect the exact same thing would happen in Australia or any other country that was in a care-taker period before an election.
Move along...nothing to see here...
I think the F-35 program is done for in Holland.
- Only 2 parties that really support it have maybe 50 seats from 150 in parlement.
- Planned budget not high enuff to buy a decent number of F-35
- Sustainment cost are at least 2 times that of the current F-35 so that dont fit too.
- Holland is in the midst of a defense reorganization lowering its defense budget to 7,2 bil Euro. 7 out of 9 parties want to do another round of minimal 1 Bil euro.
- Participation so far in the project only brought around 420 jobs.
- F-35 is highly unpopular under Dutch voters.
Even staying in the program and see in 4 years is unlikly to happen seeing the mood in parlement.
A new report is ordered coming end oktober, about what it will cost to end it and thats new how much alternatives gonne cost.
Short term i expect after the elections will step out the F-35 program fast. Keep flying F-16 till 2020 and decide over successor in 2016. Most likely Gripen NG.
On top of that possible defensecuts i expect:
1 of 2 airbases wil be closed leaving 3 squadrons and training spares plan to max 56-58.
Navy will loose their 4 subs.
Army wil reorganise 2 mech brigades into 1 closing 1 base.
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