F-35 Multirole Joint Strike Fighter

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mAIOR

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South Korea's FMS request is now online for a requested 60 aircraft. The full package is worth $10.8b or around $180m per aircraft (whole package divided by numbers of aircraft only.)

http://www.dsca.mil/pressreleases/36-b/2013/Korea_13-10.pdf

Seems like the $180m - $200m package costs are fairly steady at present. With the exception of Japan (which I suspect includes substantial domestic manufacturing and hence the higher per aircraft / package price tag) the costs are more than reasonable compared to other aircraft types.
just to be perfectly clear, when you mention these prices, the equivalent prices for other aircraft would include sensor suites as well am I right? Like in the Super Hornet comparison. Also, by your calculations, this price includes weapons and some sort of maintenance (I suppose) that is included in the overall price am I right? If so, 180 million per airframe is not a lot more than other airframes and, considering bang for the buck, might even be a contender for the F-16... Pretty impressive considering all the cost overruns.
 

StobieWan

Super Moderator
Staff member
just to be perfectly clear, when you mention these prices, the equivalent prices for other aircraft would include sensor suites as well am I right? Like in the Super Hornet comparison. Also, by your calculations, this price includes weapons and some sort of maintenance (I suppose) that is included in the overall price am I right? If so, 180 million per airframe is not a lot more than other airframes and, considering bang for the buck, might even be a contender for the F-16... Pretty impressive considering all the cost overruns.
No indeed - there's nothing in those numbers or that package that raises any eyebrows in terms of cost at all - they're getting a brand new combat coded jet plus an entire new support infrastructure for the sort of money you can spend on a 4G platform. So, to all those folks who've been declaring that the F35 is too expensive to buy or run, I think this is a distinct poke in the eye. Certainly to the trolls jabbering incessantly that the F35 would be $200m a copy, game over.

And it's nice to see the order go through after a lot of naysaying from ill informed sources :)
 

the road runner

Active Member
F-35 B doing night time vertical landing.

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atdre1joRsY"]First F-35B Night Vertical Landing - YouTube[/nomedia]

It gives a good view of the engine's thrust being cut off as soon as the F-35B hit's the ground.Admirals must hate when a hole gets burnt in their ships deck
 

jack412

Active Member
I had another look at the SH and Growler SAR and the aussie quote at I guess an average year dollar 2015.. limiting it to a SH package, I work out a SH package to be $152M ea and the ROK package is said to be $180M ea in I guess an average of 2020 year dollar

when you allow for a 5 years low 2% inflation, any difference isn't worth talking about,
I figure about the primary 20% minus the10% for inflation equals a total 10% dearer and I haven't heard anyone bitch about the cost of a SH

The light of reality really messes with the naysayers doom and gloom....I don't think it would be a stretch if I looked closely at other planes packages to find that some may indeed be dearer than a F-35A
 

Olaf

New Member
Turning the F35 into a UCAV?

A bit off-topic here, but it's a question I have been wondering about for a while.

Is it conceivable that a future version of the F35 could be programmed to function fully autonomously--without a pilot? And would this be possible without substantial changes to its hardware?
 

colay

New Member
A bit off-topic here, but it's a question I have been wondering about for a while.

Is it conceivable that a future version of the F35 could be programmed to function fully autonomously--without a pilot? And would this be possible without substantial changes to its hardware?

IIRC, LM had a proposal to create an unmanned version of the F-35 but apparently it elicited no interest.
 

fretburner

Banned Member
South Korea's FMS request is now online for a requested 60 aircraft. The full package is worth $10.8b or around $180m per aircraft (whole package divided by numbers of aircraft only.)

http://www.dsca.mil/pressreleases/36-b/2013/Korea_13-10.pdf

Seems like the $180m - $200m package costs are fairly steady at present. With the exception of Japan (which I suspect includes substantial domestic manufacturing and hence the higher per aircraft / package price tag) the costs are more than reasonable compared to other aircraft types.
Does this equate to a win for the F-35 in South Korea?

Because in my opinion, the Japan going for the F-35, I don't think South Korea will want anything that isn't as stealthy or better than the F-35. Which of course, will also result in Singapore buying the F-35.
 

OPSSG

Super Moderator
Staff member
Dear Members,

In view of the length of this F-35 Discussion thread (at 155 pages), the Mod Team have decided to close this old thread. From today onwards, members can continue their F-35 discussions in new threads. To organise these discussions, we have decided to split these discussions into three threads namely:

(i) F-35 Program - General Discussion (covering all common platform issues, like the helmet system, program office news, GAO reports, and weapons integration);

(ii) F-35B/C - Naval Air Discussions (covering all aircraft news specific to the USMC and the USN); and

(iii) F-35 - International Participation (Partners, SCP and FMS Sales Discussions).
Join us at the three new threads for further discussions.

If you are a new member, you might want to read a backgrounder called "Airpower 101 for New Members", before posting to stay out of trouble (think of this as a survival guide, to avoid being banned).

Cheers
OPSSG
 
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