Quake3World

Now let’s move on to advanced math, with lots of extra zeroes, to figure out how much the whole program will cost. We’ll make it a story problem: “If the American people are stupid enough to pay $200 million for each barks-like-a-dog F-35, and they go through with the planned purchase of 2,443 of these flying cash dispensers, how many billions in treasury bonds will we have to sell to the Chinese just to line the pockets of some sleazy Texas congressmen and their contractor pals?”

Let’s see, that’s $200,000,000 X 2,443 = $488600000000. Call it five hundred billion dollars, with tax and gratuity. Half a trillion. Remember that scene in Austin Powers where the UN laughs when Dr Evil demands “one…MILLION…dollars”? Well, at DoD Procurement, they’d laugh even harder if he’d said, “One…BILLION…dollars.” They don’t even get excited until you’re into the hundred-billions. Millions and billions are for little people, like taxes.

The Super Hornet currently sells for about $55 million US apiece; the Pentagon expects the F-35 to cost twice as much — about $110 million. But only 20 per cent of the cost of owning a fighter fleet is the actual sticker price of the planes. Eighty per cent is the operating cost — what it takes to keep them flying. That means everything from pilots and fuel to maintenance and spares.

According to the GAO, the Super Hornet actually costs the U.S. Navy $15,346 an hour to fly. It sounds like a lot — until you see that the U.S. Air Force's official "target" for operating the F-35 is $31,900 an hour. The GAO says it's a little more — closer to $32,500.

Eraser wrote:Hans Hillen, our minister of defense has spewed some more bullshit rhetoric and fear mongering about the JSF. Here's some translated quotes.

About the Dutch government doubting whether or not it should buy F35's:

If we continue to hesitate, others will take the loot.

But of course, we should really do this because... well... others are doing it as well.

The Netherlands is a leading, rich, developed country. If such a country abandons the international community you will pay the price for it in the economy.

You will get less production orders and less employment. Then we have the image of a beggar who is only in for it if we can get something out of it.

He's also convinced we really need a plane like this, because, oh shit, the Russians are coming!

Almost monthly an F16 chases away a russian plane. The world is in such an unbalanced state that if we just give a signal that we don't protect ourselves anymore, we draw the enemy towards us

If we think we can win a war with antiquated hardware or even be threatening to an enemy, we make a big mistake

What a fucking tool. But apparently it's people like him, who still think we're in the middle of the cold war, that decide about shit like this.

Given the F-35’s basic design, it’s not just 30mm shells that pose a threat: any 20mm, 7.62mm, 5.56mm round from the ground or fragments from the smallest of shoulder-launched antiaircraft missiles penetrating the F-35’s skin could trigger catastrophic loss of aircraft. The –A and –C variants have massive volumes of fuel surrounding the engine inlets, and the 270-volt electrical system provides ample charge for a fatal spark in the air/fuel mixture. Since the fuel is also being used as a heat sink to cool avionics and other systems (and has considerable trouble doing so on hot summer days), it is already at an elevated temperature. Furthermore, this pre-heated and volatile fuel is being used as the operating liquid in the –B’s “fueldraulic system” that swivels the extremely hot engine exhaust nozzle during STOVL mode. What happens when a stray rifle bullet nicks a fueldraulic line and raw fuel sprays at 4000 psi into the broiling engine bay next to the 1500-1700 degree exhaust nozzle?

Vertical-landing ‘pads will be exposed to 1700 deg. F and high velocity (Mach 1) exhaust,’ the report says. The exhaust will melt asphalt and ‘is likely to spall the surface of standard airfield concrete pavements on the first VL.’ (The report leaves to the imagination what jagged chunks of spalled concrete will do in a supersonic blast field.)”

Ryoki wrote:Good question, don't know really... I find it fascinating for some reason.

Norway is set to take delivery of six Joint Strike Fighters in 2017 and repeat the exercise every year until 2024, by which time it will have acquired its full fleet of 52 aircraft, the government announced in Oslo on April 26.

Norway recently received assurances from the JSF Joint Executive Steering Board regarding the integration of the Kongsberg-developed Joint Strike Missile in the Block 4 version of the fighter.

“This is important to us mainly from an operational point of view as we need JSM to fulfill our operational requirements. It is also important from an industrial perspective as we believe the sales potential for the missile is significant with several F-35 users,” said Strom-Erichsen.