Australia to Order First Batch of Joint Strike Fighters

Well at least the orders are coming now. The more orders that come, the more stable the program becomes, but this increase in the hundreds of percent is totally amazing. The F-22 was killed on the bogus price of the F-35.
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Consider what Australia has been promised about F-35 "affordability" for years. When you are paying around $228 million each to stand up 14 aircraft there is a huge disconnect. “It’s about $37 million for the CTOL aircraft, which is the air force variant.” - Colonel Dwyer Dennis, U.S. JSF Program Office brief to Australian journalists, 2002- ". . . US$40 million dollars . . " -Senate Estimates/Media Air Commodore John Harvey, AM Angus Houston, Mr Mick Roche, USDM, 2003- " . . US$45 million in 2002 dollars . ." -JSCFADT/Senate Estimates, Air Commodore John Harvey, Mr Mick Roche, USDM, 2003/2004- ". . average unit recurring flyaway cost of the JSF will be around US$48 million, in 2002 dollars . . " -Senate Estimates/Press Club Briefing, Air Commodore John Harvey, 2006 ". . the JSF Price (for Australia) - US$55 million average for our aircraft . . in 2006 dollars . ." -Senate Estimates/Media AVM John Harvey ACM Angus Houston, Nov. 2006- “…DMO is budgeting around A$131 million in 2005 dollars as the unit procurement cost for the JSF. .” -AVM John Harvey Briefing, Office of the Minister for Defence, May 2007- “There are 108 different cost figures for the JSF that I am working with and each of them is correct” -Dr Steve Gumley, CEO of the DMO, Sep./Oct. 2007- “…I would be surprised if the JSF cost us anymore than A$75 million … in 2008 dollars at an exchange rate of 0.92” -JSCFADT Dr Steve Gumley, CEO DMO, July 2008- ". . Dr Gumley's evidence on the cost of the JSF was for the average unit recurring flyaway cost for the Australian buy of 100 aircraft . ." -JSCFADT/Media AVM John Harvey, Aug. 2008- Confirmed previous advice i.e. A$75 million in 2008 dollars at an exchange rate of 0.92, -JSCFADT Dr Steve Gumley, CEO of the DMO, Sep. 2009- " ...about $77 million per copy." -Robert Gates, U.S. Secretary of Defense, Feb. 2008. And yes there are spares and support and facilities to account for. However, what we have above are blatant attempts to mislead elected officials that somehow the F-35 is "affordable" when it has not proved any such thing. --- Just today, we have this from Inside Defense.com ---- DOD Issues Draft Directive Calling For Major Changes to F-35 Program The Office of the Secretary of Defense has issued a draft directive that would require the services to fund the F-35 fighter program in accordance with the recommendations of recent independent reviews, a move that would extend development by at least a year, reduce production by approximately 100 aircraft and require the addition of billions of dollars to the effort through 2015, according to defense officials. This previously unreported development, spelled out in a draft fiscal year 2011 resource management decision and confirmed by four Defense Department officials, amounts to a repudiation of the cost estimate advanced by the Joint Strike Fighter program office and prime contractor Lockheed Martin and sets the Pentagon’s costliest acquisition program on course to immediately breach so-called “critical” Nunn-McCurdy cost-growth thresholds, these officials said.
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In a perfect world the RAN would of maintained a carrier fleet capability, in reality the RAN are currently flat crewing our current limited surface and sub surface fleet. One other key element is the current government is not exactly Defense friendly, its more important to make the union and quasi greenies happy than look after the annoying ADF. Unless of course their is a photo opportunity in it for a ex Union leader
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its about time australia upgraded its air fleet.they should not however decommision their existing air fleet as australia is such a large(physically)nation they require more than a hundred aircraft in their standing air arm
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Wow, $210m each. Is there a breakdown anywhere for the quantity of services and equipment and parts they are receiving. Even the F-22 was supposedly down to $147m 2009 flyaway costs, though that did not include anything beyond just the immediate aircraft purhcase. It is nice to see the program becoming more powerful. We have put all our eggs in this F-35 basket so I hope it works as advertised.
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