The same would go for the F-16 except it is higher performance and cost less to operate. That last one may have some difficulty. USAF operating cost figures are based on 20 year old aircraft not new ones. Getting the DMO involved in anything can always jack up the price.
So how much would an FMS deal under competition with other players cost Australia for 72 F-16s?
About $7.2B give or take.
With real industry offsets, because it was done with a competitive process.
Australia's current tac-air plan means we will be a second-stringer unlikely to defend our air space against emerging threats.
If we are going to go second-tier, at least do it with an aircraft that can run out of a no-escape-zone like a scalded dog.
And could do other worthwhile support in concert with regional allies.
Without costing an arm and a leg.
F-35 fan thinking:
--The F-35 will have more radius/range.
Maybe not. At least according to LM.
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Putting aside that the F-35 program is in deep trouble in several areas, previous LM adverts show F-16 configurations with radius/range exceeding the F-35 JORD. This would be drop tank options (which the F-35 does not have); and conformal fuel tank options (which the F-35 does not have).
--The F-16 doesn't have stealth.
For strike missions into IADS (which the F-35 will not survive), the F-16 can carry JASSM and JASSM-ER. As for that alleged F-35 stealth capability.
--The F-35 will do better in air-to-air combat than an F-16.
Unlikely.
Regardless of what Australia does. For anything big, it will still need F-22s around.
All this could have been avoided.
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-Time's Battleland - 5 Part series on F-35 procurement - 2013
-Summary of Air Power Australia F-35 points
-Bill Sweetman, Aviation Week and the F-35
-U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO) F-35 reports
-F-35 JSF: Cold War Anachronism Without a Mission
-History of F-35 Production Cuts
-Looking at the three Japan contenders (maneuverability)
-How the Canadian DND misleads the public about the F-35
-Value of STOVL F-35B over-hyped
-Cuckoo in the nest--U.S. DOD DOT&E F-35 report is out
-6 Feb 2012 Letter from SASC to DOD boss Panetta questioning the decision to lift probation on the F-35B STOVL.
-USAFs F-35 procurement plan is not believable
-December 2011 Australia/Canada Brief
-F-35 Key Performance Perimeters (KPP) and Feb 2012 CRS report
-F-35 DOD Select Acquisition Report (SAR) FY2012
-Release of F-35 2012 test report card shows continued waste on a dud program
-Australian Defence answers serious F-35 project concerns with "so what?"
-Land of the Lost (production cut history update March 2013)
-Outgoing LM F-35 program boss admits to flawed weight assumptions (March 2013)
-A look at the F-35 program's astro-turfing
-F-35 and F-16 cost per flying hour
-Is this aircraft worth over $51B of USMC tac-air funding?
-Combat radius and altitude, A model
-F-35A, noise abatement and airfields and the USAF
-Deceptive marketing practice: F-35 blocks
-The concurrency fraud
-The dung beetle's "it's known" lie
-F-35's air-to-air ability limited
-F-35 Blocks--2006 and today
-The F-35B design is leaking fuel
-F-35 deliveries
-ADF's wacky F-35 assumptions
-Gauging performance, the 2008 F-35, Davis dream brief
-Aboriginal brought out as a prop
-Super Kendall's F-35 problem
-LM sales force in pre-Internet era
-History of F-35 engine problems
-Compare
-JSF hopes and dreams...early days of the Ponzi Scheme
-The Prognostics
-2002--Australia joins the F-35 program
-Congressional Research Service--Through to FY2013, F-35 has received $83.3B in funding
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