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'The US's $200 million benchwarmer'


Yamato

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Should North Korea's hostile rhetoric give way to action, the U.S. military has sent F-22 fighters to defend South Korea. These fighters carry a price tag of $143 million each, making them the most expensive in use.

That could change if the F-35 Lightning II were deployed. Yet by all indications, that won't be happening anytime soon -- if at all.

According to Winslow Wheeler, director of the Straus Military Reform Project at the Project on Government Oversight, the F-35 program now costs approximately $200 million per craft.

Despite the princely sums spent on the fighter, the plane actually sits idle -- a boondoggle Wheeler claims is pushing up its cost, since it missed its original 2012 deployment date.

Its convoluted design, pursued by the Department of Defense, is primarily to blame for the airplane's extended stay in the development stage, according to the analyst.

"They took vertical landing design and said, 'let's make that supersonic,'" Wheller said in an interview. "But STOVL [short take-off and vertical landing] airplanes have to be short and stumpy, and supersonic airplanes like to be twin-engine, and long and fine-looking."

The DoD then tried to make it a multi-purpose fighter and bomber, an effort that Wheeler says fell short. "Those have very different design specifications," he said.

He added that the decision to make the F-35 a multi-service vehicle further complicated matters. "The Navy version looks like the Air Force version, but it's 5,000 pounds heavier," he said. "Both are quite different from the Marine Corps' STOVL version." Additionally, the design limits pilot visibility.

"The pilots said they can't see to the rear, because of the way the cockpit meets the fuselage and the placement of the headrest," he said. "Seeing to the rear is essential for fighter aircraft."

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/meet-f-35-uss-200-144812833.html

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Just looking at the control surfaces makes my head hurt. The darned thing fly's SIDEWAYS...... 'taint natural! Too complex, I think and definitely too expensive.

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this is so passive aggressive nk is just blowing hot steam but america is going to force their hand. its like me pointing a gun to your head and saying be cool and when you get annoyed and threaten me, i switch to a tank just incase you might hurt me.

obviously nk leaders have been aggressive in the past, but they did have that joint venture between sk and nk, seemed like trelations might improve.

Edited by Armchair Educated
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The F-35 is a mess that keeps getting worst. I really hope Canada changes its mind on buying any.

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