Continuing on from the previous post.
Cost per flying hour numbers from last F-35 DOD Select Acquistion Report (SAR):
F-16 (USAF) - $22470
F-35 - $31923
Difference: F-35 42pc more per flying hour.
LM briefs (for years)
F-35 would be 20pc less cost for "operations and sustainment" compared to an F-16.
From the F-35 SAR vs the F-16, this should be $17976 as a cost per flying hour for the F-35 if LM briefs are to be believed.
Bogan
Claims that the F-16 is $21500 per flying hour.
Claims that the F-35 would be about $23900 per flying hour.
Bogdan's number come in with the F-35 being 11pc more per flying hour compared to an F-16.
Interesting, this article, as it does not state that the first 2 F-35 mistake jets for the Dutch (non-TR2 hardware) will be parked until further notice.
2 comments:
Remember when the USAF promised that the F-22A would cost half as much per-hour to fly as the F-15C?
They also promised us way back in the day that the F-15A would cost less to buy and fly than the F-4E;
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/docs/980411-f22.htm
The F-22A now costs $68362/hour, BTW...;
http://nation.time.com/2013/04/02/costly-flight-hours/
...and as you can see, the F-15C costs less than HALF that much to fly.
Now they're telling us that an aircraft that's still basically experimental (let alone *in development*) is going to cost less to fly than it's main predecessor --- even though it's program already costs more than any other weapons program in military history, that is planned to produce less than 1/3 the number of aircraft as what it is to replace.
"Fooled me once, shame on you; fooled me twice, shame on me."
They might fool officials, living in their own little insular bureaucratic worlds, but they won't dupe the public that easily.
I'm curious, will the 2 Dutch aircraft in question be retrofitted w/ operational TR2 hardware?
Maybe they could saved a little money and bought the jets, minus the engines, if they were going to park aircraft anyway? At least they could contribute to keeping the manufacturing line busy, while saving some costs too?
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