Forum: F-35 Lightning II

thg, interesting in such a long article that the F-35 is mentioned thusly. I guess the article is not really about the F-35 but everything to do with military budgets in general and the lack of money:

""...And on both sides of the Atlantic the rising cost of the stealthy F-35 Joint Strike Fighter means its order book could shrink sharply....

...So is there any way of developing weapons more cheaply? More transatlantic co-operation would help. The F-35 fighter, despite disputes over rising costs, still looks less expensive than Augustine’s law would predict. It inherits technology from the F-22, and three variants are being built for the American air force, navy and marine corps. Several countries have joined the programme...."
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[Explaining about Mr. Augustine] "In a book published in 1983, Norman Augustine, a luminary of the aerospace industry, drafted a series of lighthearted “laws”. In one aphorism, he plotted the exponential growth of unit cost for fighter aircraft since 1910 (see chart 2), and extrapolated it to its absurd conclusion:

“In the year 2054, the entire defence budget will purchase just one aircraft. This aircraft will have to be shared by the Air Force and Navy 3½ days each per week except for leap year, when it will be made available to the Marines for the extra day.”
Nearly three decades on, Mr Augustine says, “we are right on target. Unfortunately nothing has changed.”

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Quote:

[Explaining about Mr. Augustine] "In a book published in 1983, Norman Augustine, a luminary of the aerospace industry, drafted a series of lighthearted “laws”. In one aphorism, he plotted the exponential growth of unit cost for fighter aircraft since 1910 (see chart 2), and extrapolated it to its absurd conclusion:

“In the year 2054, the entire defence budget will purchase just one aircraft. This aircraft will have to be shared by the Air Force and Navy 3½ days each per week except for leap year, when it will be made available to the Marines for the extra day.”
Nearly three decades on, Mr Augustine says, “we are right on target. Unfortunately nothing has changed.”

This ‘law’ is pretty much nonsense.
Costs are rising mostly due to:
1. Inflation
2. Rising taxation
3. Increasing complexity of military aircraft

I’m not sure if it’s fair to compare simple home-made paper planes with modern sensor packed supersonic jets.
Wright Model A costs ~750 000 today’s dollars. We can build much more complex aircrafts today significantly cheaper.

F-100 Super Sabre today would cost ~6 mil just because of the inflation. And this is still very simple aircraft almost without any electronics.
F-4E phantom in today’s dollars is ~17 mil, but it’s far more complex aircraft.
Take 1980 F-16 price and add inflation – almost 30 mil.
F-35 is far more complex and capable than the Viper - VLO, expensive sensors(AESA, IRST, DAS) and it will cost only 60 mil. I’d say it’s pretty cheap. Sure, it costs more than the Viper, but only slightly…. But tank is also more expensive than a Horse and a lance. Horse & lance is more expensive than a caveman’s club.

Mr Augustine should do a 'combat capability' chart to match...

Come on though guys, it does say Augustine's law is a lighthearted. Must say I found it pretty amusing.

Forum: F-35 Lightning II

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