F-35? Cancel or push ahead?

[AERTANK]

I'm fairly sure most of us would be just casual observors of the Aviation world, especially the Military end, but we do have reasonably informed opinion compared to the General Media and population! So My question is, is the F-35 JSF Lightning II worth carrying on with or should the whole program be canceled before it goes any further into production? Most of the Aviation Mags I've been reading recently seem to suggest it is a bit of a "Pig in Poke" of and Aircraft, not capable of replacing the Aircraft it is intended to replace, far more expensive than an F-22, More maintainence heavy than the aircraft it replaces (the opposite of what it was supposed to be), and not as capable as reported. It is claimed the program is too big to be allowed to fail, and everyone else is just waiting for each other to take the first step and cancel! Or will the Aircraft live up to the Spec as advertised in the original brochure and tender? What could replace the program? I know we're not experts but I'd be interested in your views?

[casper]

I've always viewed the F-35 as a Formula 1 car trying to compete with rally cars. It looks great but is as fragile as hell. This type of 'one size fits all' project has been tried before - the F-111 was intended to be a single fighter/strike aircraft for the USAF and US Navy but technical problems and cost over runs eventually led to the cancellation of the fighter version. The strike version also had a very poor combat life at the start but eventually evolved in to a very capable and trusted weapons system.

I honestly think this could be a white elephant and will only be produced to save face.

[Angry Turnip]

I have never been in favour of the F-35 which might make me biased.
It seems that it is being built just to keep people in jobs,and is much too complex and less capable than it should be.

I think the best option would have been to build more Harrier GR9`s as they can be used both from carriers or land in a single varient-there was no sensible reason to retire the Harrier early.

The F-35 may have all the bells and whistles,but the design is frail and over complicated.
I don`t think supersonic speed is a must have for that type of aircraft-it should be about unit costs,capabilities,and operating costs and future upgrades of the airframe and weapon systems

The Harrier can do almost everything the F-35 can do and is combat proven-it is reliable and the crews that flew them loved them.

[Dave]

The delays and costs just keep on rolling bigger and bigger each year. And there are still hundreds of issues with the airframe. I'm on the fence, it sould probably be cancelled before the costs escalate further, whilst on the other hand, they've almost gone too far to cancel the programme now and most of the money invested would be wasted.

[Angry Turnip]

I really fail to see why there is a need to design totally new airframes for military fast jets.

It seems to me that existing technology has already pushed designs as far as they can go-sure there is advances in engines, electronics and aircraft systems,but in fighter/bomber design there doesn`t seem to be much more than can be done to improve on what has went before.

The USA are obsessed with Stealth,probably just as a two fingered salute to Russia/China,but in reality I think the Typhoon,F-15,F-16,F/A 18,Rafale and their Russian equivalent are probably as good as you are going to get.

If you look across the smaller European nations,most have gone for the F-16 which is a superb all-rounder,The SAAB Grippen is another very capable aircraft that doesn`t cost £80 million +  each.

What`s wrong with maybe re-engineering existing types and maybe building aircraft under license,so everybody gets a slice of the pie.

International Terrorism is the world enemy at the minute,and will be for the foreseeable future,unless Al Quada procure an Air Force.

North Korea and possibly China are one`s to watch,but I seriously think that all these new mega expensive hi-tech aircraft are simply not needed,and a great deal of it is keeping up with USA paranoia.

[deemay]

such a shame ;-(

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2153741/Languishing-Arizona-mighty-fleet-Harriers--sold-price-just-ONE-US-replacements.html

[Angry Turnip]

I wish I had not looked at that post-to see any aircraft lying in a scrapyard is sad enough,but to see the utter waste of perfectly good Harriers stripped out is terrible.

The government claimed it was a good deal for the taxpayer to sell them-how exactly was it a good deal?

[deemay]

It is not nice to see how our planes have ended up :-( sad times indeed.

[AERTANK]

It's not just the government selling off kit dirt cheap, the MOD has messed up major procurement projects for decades. The UK Phantom springs to mind, the heaviest, thirstiest, costliest, slowest Phantom at the time (Excluding the F-4G), also Nimrod AEW, TSR2, F-111K, SA80, Nimrod MR4, Chinook HC.3 etc Money wasted!

The Avionics for the Tornado were tested on Buccaneers, and the pilots suggested canceling the Tornado and just build new Buccs with the up dated Avionics! Most UK programs seem to go way over budget, probably caused by the need to Anglicize off the self programs such as the Phantom!

The Harrier did need replacing, it had a few flaws, lack of range, lack of Radar, lack of payload, and it was a bit of a potential SAM magnet with a very large IR signiature right at the wing joint! But I don't think the F-35 is the Aircraft to replace it, or the F-16/F-18/F-14/A-10/F-111 etc! In my opinion they should scrap the program, and do as Mr Turnip says and transfer the the technology to other airframes! I always liked the YF-32 over the YF-35! Boeing looked into adding a lot of the F-35 tech onto the F-18E/F!

For the UK, I'd suggest buying the Dassault Rafale, and up grade the carriers as cat-trap ones with the money saved!