Trump hints at ASH buy

Speaking at the 787-10 rollout in South Carolina, Donald Trump hinted at a possible "large" purchase of Al Advanced Super Hornets from Boeing. During his remarks, he said “The F-18’s a great plane and now put a stealth component onto it.” Boeing has said the new features compliment the F-35, EA-18, and E-2D.

And this is how we end up with 20 B-2s,and 187 F-22s. If they buy a large number of ASH platforms, that money has to come from somewhere. Going by what he's said so far, that means F-35Cs getting cut. Even though they're only looking at 350 C models, any cuts to that order is going to push costs for the A and B higher, which will bring on more cuts, and higher costs, until we end up with half the fleet we need, and fly our 4th Gen platforms into the 2060s.

fightersweep.com...

a reply to: Zaphod58

I think the F-35 should be cut. The international clusterf*** is an historical boondoggle. I'd like to hear your reasons for maintaining the spending.

a reply to: gription

Have you bothered to read any of the reports that have come out lately? Their first Red Flag they went 15:1 in the air to air arena, and successfully took on ground threats that in previous exercises would have had the Blue Force backing off and throwing cruise missiles at them, while maintaining a 90%+ mission rate.

Training against ground threats at Mountain Home they had to turn their transponder on to make the training even possible.

Training against simulated radar systems in Florida, the aircraft recognized that they weren't actual radar systems, and ignored them.

And a lot more. The F-35 is maturing into a hell of a platform, and will continue to get better as they iron the bugs out over time.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I never said it was not a bad ass plane. I asked if you approved of the spending.
There is also the less "romantic" fact of drone proliferation. Human pilots can rarely compete. I'm not advocating eliminating manned platforms but the f-35 has generally, to quote Eric Cartman "***** ***".

a reply to: gription

We already put this much $$ into, I don't see what turning back will do for us now. Best to push forward and hope for the best. It needs to prove itself in combat though, and I have a feeling its coming this year.

a reply to: gription

UAVs are years away from taking any mission away from manned platforms. The only existing strike platforms are only capable of working in permissive environments, and they haven't even considered testing an air to air platform yet. They're still talking about 6-8 years minimum before they even try air to air, probably longer.

The F-35 is vital. We have F-15s and F-16s flying around that have far exceeded their initial life cycle, and had that cycle pushed farther and farther out. They have structural deficiencies, and can't take massive upgrades anymore without a near total rebuild.

And yes, i approve of the spending. Any aircraft built now is going to be expensive as hell and take years to mature. We're into incredible areas of technology and getting it to work is hard.

a reply to: Zaphod58
I reiterate my "international boondoggle" statement. All of these country's personnel have access to our most sensitive developmental platform? The F-35's are pwned before they take off.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: gription

Have you bothered to read any of the reports that have come out lately? Their first Red Flag they went 15:1 in the air to air arena, and successfully took on ground threats that in previous exercises would have had the Blue Force backing off and throwing cruise missiles at them, while maintaining a 90%+ mission rate.

Training against ground threats at Mountain Home they had to turn their transponder on to make the training even possible.

Training against simulated radar systems in Florida, the aircraft recognized that they weren't actual radar systems, and ignored them.

And a lot more. The F-35 is maturing into a hell of a platform, and will continue to get better as they iron the bugs out over time.

Couldn't that tech be implemented into the F-18's though?

originally posted by: gription
a reply to: Zaphod58
I reiterate my "international boondoggle" statement. All of these country's personnel have access to our most sensitive developmental platform? The F-35's are pwned before they take off.

Exactly. That is the process: Parade the seemingly latest machines for the other guy to copy but keep your very best hidden.

Let us not forget for a second, somebody is "flying" those black triangles around (mostly in American skies), so what's your best guess....

a reply to: Zaphod58

maks you wonder why he would want to cut funding....

the F-35 is an amazing platform for sure. but with new F-18's being built what technology from the F-35 will go in to them?

obviuosly the F35 is suprior but he is doing this for a reason, maybe just to light a fire under someones butt.

Every time a new plane is postponed or canceled it ends up biting us in the butt down the road.
That's how we have b52s still in use.
The cost of developing this planes cutting edge technology is nearly done, procurement is the next step.
You can't spend billions in planning and research then not follow through with production.

originally posted by: Vector99
Couldn't that tech be implemented into the F-18's though?

Just slap a "stealth" sticker on it. Trump will buy it.

originally posted by: moebius

originally posted by: Vector99
Couldn't that tech be implemented into the F-18's though?

Just slap a "stealth" sticker on it. Trump will buy it.

Other than the Trump part,,"well maybe".
That's essentially what we would be doing.

Imagine trying to take a thirty year old race car, dropping in a new computer and thinking it will compete with new race cars.

a reply to: Bluntone22

i think people under sell Trump. We have no idea what his briefings say and what the contractors are telling him.

he is a businessman first President second. I would be SHOCKED if the F-35 doesn't get the production numbers that were projected.

nothing wrong with using legacy airframes with upgrades, i think he is trying to play hardball with contractors. like get you stuff together or we will go somewhere else.

He is a avation guy dyed in the wool, so i bet he has seen some pretty cool things in that oval office.

a reply to: penroc3

I agree that people underestimate trump.
Hopefully you're right and this is just him getting the best deal possible.

a reply to: Zaphod58

It almost makes you wonder if that Trudeau meeting this week involved selling the Canadians on the ASH.

What would be even more interesting is if they wer considering the ASH as a purchase to go alongside the F-35, growing the airwing, rather than replacing it.

What would be even more interesting still would be if they were also considering it to replace older F-16s and F-18s for the USAF.

I think we should have a couple of new types of jets, spending everything on F35s is not going to bring the price down. There needs to be competition to keep the price down too. I know the F35 is a great jet, but it is way overpriced too. I bet that if Trump buys some of these, the price on the F35s will not increase, the company will see that their overpriced jets need to be more competative. The US is the one who started this program, other countries follow their lead. The US often pays more for these things than other countries do. Cripes, we as citizens can buy a lot of military grade stuff cheaper than our Military does. All of the big contractors make megabucks off of us.

a reply to: rickymouse

KBR and Halliburton were amazing wasters of money in Iraq.

truck needs a new tranny.....burn it and buy a new one

Generator needs a new coil......burn it and by a new one


soldiers need clean water......F it, a little sand in the shower won't hurt

a reply to: gription

All of these ALLIES have access to it. The UK already have pilots flying the B-2 and have for years, including combat missions. All of our allies have had access to all the information about our stealth programs. It would be stupid if they didn't.

But yeah, you're right. These countries that are our friends are either going to go to war with us or sell every secret the F-35 has to Russia and China.

Whatever.

a reply to: Vector99

No. You can't make an F-18 stealthy, and you can't add the other systems without totally redesigning it, from the ground up. The F-35 can barely keep up with cooling at times, and these systems were designed for it.