No More New Fighter Aircraft Types?

"...The total cost of LOCKHEED MARTIN CORP.'s Joint Strike Fighter
program to develop a new tactical fighter will rise by $45
billion, or 22.6%, to $245 billion, the Pentagon said. In a
regular report to Congress on major weapons programs, the U.S.
Defense Department said the sharp rise in costs for the new
jet, also known as the F-35, was due mainly to revised
contractor labor and overhead costs, design delays, and a
postponement in the start of procurement from 2006 to 2007.
(Reuters 04:58 PM ET 04/05/2004)...."

Are we getting to the point in history where the development of new fighter
plane models is going to cease?

History has seen the demise of the chariot, the battering ram, the military
dirigible, the battleship, and even the hypersonic transport. So are we
pursuing the last fighter plane in the F-35? The unit price of modern
fighters is such that only a very few countries in the world can even afford
a fully effective air force. Also, we now know the key to success in air
combat is pilot training, not having the hottest airplanes. Witness two Navy
F/A-18s on a bombing mission in Desert Storm shooting down two Iraqi
interceptors while enroute to their target.

Today only three entities apparently can afford to develop new fighter plane
types. They are Russia, the European Union, and the good old USA. Other
nations like Communist China, India, or Israel seem to do little more than
develop variations on existing models. Even so, neither Russia or the EU
have been able lately to compete with the USA in new model development.

So is it becoming more and more difficult to justify a new model fighter
today, either in term of performance or cost. Will the F-35 be the last of a
breed?

WDA

end

W. D. Allen Sr. wrote:
Are we getting to the point in history where the development of new fighter
plane models is going to cease?

Fnord!

I can't find the "United States military will only be able to afford one
airplane" quote.

Can somebody help me out here?

-HJC

Henry J Cobb wrote:
W. D. Allen Sr. wrote:
Are we getting to the point in history where the development of new
fighter plane models is going to cease?

Fnord!

I can't find the "United States military will only be able to afford
one airplane" quote.

Can somebody help me out here?

Norman Augustine, from _Augustine's Laws._ (And I think a version before
that in "The Widening Gyre" published in n_International Security_)

"In the year 2054, the entire defense budget will purchase just one
aircraft. This aircraft will have to be shared by the Air Force and Navy
3-1/2 days each per week except for leap year, when it will be made
available to the Marines for the extra day."

Of course, many of these so-called laws were actually intended to point out
the fallaciousness of simple extrapolation of statistical data.

--
Tom Schoene Replace "invalid" with "net" to e-mail
"Our country, right or wrong. When right, to be kept right, when
wrong to be put right." - Senator Carl Schurz, 1872

"Thomas Schoene" wrote in message link.net...
"In the year 2054, the entire defense budget will purchase just one
aircraft. This aircraft will have to be shared by the Air Force and Navy
3-1/2 days each per week except for leap year, when it will be made
available to the Marines for the extra day."

Of course, many of these so-called laws were actually intended to point out
the fallaciousness of simple extrapolation of statistical data.


Unfortunately, operating costs are spiraling so out of control that
there is a sad ring of truth to this hyperbole (AvWeek Apr 5)...
Some potential candidates to be defense secretary in a John Kerry
administration are already waving off the opportunity. "Think of the
the nightmare any secretary is going to have," says a likely
contender. "We are looking at a defense budget this year that is
almost the same as Reagan had in 1985 in real purchasing power. But
look how much less we get. Reagan was buying 700,000 more people in
uniform, 912 combat aircraft compared with 100-150 this year, 900
tanks compared with none, 600 Bradley APCs compared with none, 27
ships compared with 11. It reflects how shockingly large operating
costs have become."