It states that there is little hope for the services aircraft recapitalisation as dreamed. Especially tac-air.
Reality.
Between FY2016-2020 the F-35A, KC-46, and C-130 and RPA* will account for 99% of the USAF's aircraft acquisition budget.
Because of the protected status of the F-35, even if its' procurement plan of record is cut (note with all the delays in the program USAF is already short hundreds of F-35s) it will suck the air out of the room in budget discussions.
--"The F-35A and KC-46 programs will continue for decades, offering little prospective relief."--
"Decades?" Seriously?
Taking out the A-10 will mean a real capability gap for those that want to sustain various kinds of Operation: USELESS DIRT wars.
The document states that the USAF intends to aquire "60 F-35As per year".
Odd, that is a cut of almost half from the 110 per year up to 2005. When price climb appeared, USAF stated in 2006, that 80 F-35s per years would be the new full-rate-production normal, moving the last order year from 2027 to 2037.
The new CRS report states that 48 per year can be ordered freeing up $1B per year.
Funny about that magic 48 **. This is the exact number that in 2008, USAF plans and programs, (the office that tells the boss what can be paid for each year) said would be the limit per year when full-rate production started in 2014. There wasn't enough money to buy more F-35s per year.
USAF thinking about 48 full-rate production F-35s per year in 2008...
The only thing they stated could change this is if Congress gave them more money.
48.
That is a well over a 50 percent cut from the original USAF-110 per year back when this Ponzi scheme started.
2008, "only" 10 years from this 1998 brief used to defraud the money from Congress.
Let us see how USAF sustain's 60 F-35s per year. Full-rate production is when?
So there you have it. USAF will, in no way see anywhere near 1763 F-35s: the original program of record.
Place your bets for the number of F-35s the USAF will end up with.
With KC-46, C-130, F-35 and Long Range Bomber, which one of these programs will be alive in a few years?
Note that a smaller tac-air force can also mean a smaller number of tankers.
If the C-130 is no longer produced, that is our last transport aircraft. The C-17 just ended production. America no longer makes a medium or large air-lifter.
These programs will be revamping their PowerPoint trying to be daddy's favorite.
“It’s about $37 million for the CTOL aircraft, which is the air force variant.”
- Colonel Dwyer Dennis, U.S. JSF Program Office brief, 2002-
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*=Remotely Piloted Vehicles.
**= H/T- Aviation Week blog (item no longer online).
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-Defence covered up chemical contamination at RAAF Williamtown in order to pass $1B F-35 upgrade
-When will Marine Air leadership stop misinforming the public over the F-35?
-DOT&E Report: The F-35 Is Not Ready for IOC and Won't Be Any Time Soon
-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) 2011-2013
-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
-F-35 choice gives Dutch a shocking high cost per flight hour
-More indications that the F-35 is a failed program
-From the year 2000. Very insightful. The JSF: One More Card In The House (PDF)
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