Pentagon concludes "should cost" review of F-35

Discuss the F-35 Lightning II
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by spazsinbad » 01 Nov 2011, 08:49

Pentagon concludes "should cost" review of F-35 Mon Oct 31, 2011 By Andrea Shalal-Esa

"* Pentagon completes initial "should cost" review

* Lockheed to be briefed on Tuesday

* Program office says controlling costs an "absolute must"

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/ ... ompanyNews

"WASHINGTON, Oct 31 (Reuters) - The U.S. Defense Department on Monday said it had finished an initial review of what the next batch of F-35 fighter jets should cost, and would brief the manufacturer, Lockheed Martin Corp , shortly....

...Rein said the final number of aircraft and their price would be determined as part of LRIP 5 negotiations....

...Lockheed on Monday said the F-35 flight test program was more than 9 percent ahead of schedule, as of Oct. 29.

From the start of flight testing in December 2006 through Oct. 29, it said F-35s flew 1,412 times, including flights by production-model planes and AA-1, a flight test aircraft.

It said the F-35A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) jets being built for the Air Force had flown 398 times in 2011, while the F-35B short takeoff, verticle
[sic] landing plane had completed 290 flights and 265 vertical landings. The F-35C or carrier variant had flown 131 times in 2011, it said."
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[edit] Not allowed to quote any online article in full anymore so these are only MY highlights. Always more at the JUMP URL. I'd rather quote full article for context as in the past but not allowed by moderators.
Last edited by spazsinbad on 01 Nov 2011, 19:37, edited 1 time in total.


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by 7 » 01 Nov 2011, 19:11

Soooooo?...The "should" cost, price whatever...

Ehm...Lockheed Martin seemed to have gone off subject and instead talked about succesfull test flights. Softening up many curious people before they give a price maybe?


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by bumtish » 01 Nov 2011, 19:22

7 wrote:Soooooo?...The "should" cost, price whatever...

Ehm...Lockheed Martin seemed to have gone off subject and instead talked about succesfull test flights. Softening up many curious people before they give a price maybe?


Not quite. The article says:

Director of Operational Test and Evaluation Michael Gilmore, citing the risk of catastropic failures, recommended the Air Force delay training for up to 10 months until 1,500 more hours of flight testing had been completed on top of 1,000 hours already done at Edwards Air Force Base in California.


To which a status update from Lockheed Martin is in order & relevant:

From the start of flight testing in December 2006 through Oct. 29, it said F-35s flew 1,412 times, including flights by production-model planes and AA-1, a flight test aircraft.


cheers.



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