What with the F-35

As you know the F-35 will be the main replacive fighter for the US and some of its allies.
So far the development of this fighter is behind scedule and the cost for this airplane have risin substantially.

Its known the f-35 wont be ready before 2013, but why is this??

They can implement alot of R&D of the raptor for instance into this plane, come on, they have been busy since 1999.
I find this all very strange especially when you hear about how many billions go into R&D. they have been busy for 14 years, is it a case of
American inefficiency or is this plane so darn complex that it takes that long...????

I do believe the money that the US and other countries had to pay to be in the project, is going straight to the black projects funding and that they have indeed got the finished plane ready for production at this moment (and probably much much better fighters)
Would be a perfect way to get free funding from other nations.

What do you think..?

Because the F-22 is a better plane in sense of use. Thus they are using more resources to build more F-22's than F-35's.

The F-35 although a good jet, the F-22 just has much more fighter power going for it. Basically, F-15 replacement and F-35 is the F-16 replacement. It'll have it's day, sometime.

Originally posted by Boockelbee
Its known the f-35 wont be ready before 2013, but why is this??
They can implement alot of R&D of the raptor for instance into this plane, come on, they have been busy since 1999.

F-22 was started way back when in 1981. The aircraft actually entered service in 2005. Count 'em, 24 years.

JSF project development started in 1996, 2013 was only 17 years away. They have been applying Raptor tech, and so it takes less time.

I find this all very strange especially when you hear about how many billions go into R&D. they have been busy for 14 years, is it a case of
American inefficiency or is this plane so darn complex that it takes that long...????

Complexity, and the way aircraft development works. Aircraft are huge, complex beasts that usually begin with unfair or unobtainable expectations. Either those expectations get lowered, or you have to wait til the tech comes out to make it happen. If it isn't coming out, you get to do it yourself! Hooray, everybody.

It's just the way the beast called "Aeronautical Engineering" works. It takes a long time.

I do believe the money that the US and other countries had to pay to be in the project, is going straight to the black projects funding and that they have indeed got the finished plane ready for production at this moment (and probably much much better fighters)
Would be a perfect way to get free funding from other nations.

The plane is ready for production. In fact, technically it is in production, although the next few produced won't see combat. They'll be flight tested to make sure all is well and ain't no Date Line in the world will stop 'em.

What do you think..?

It's ugly, has a poor combat role, and is probably overpriced, but its development is going pretty swimmingly.

I'll stick with Russian a/c, though, their newer ones still look as sexy as they did in the Cold War.

Originally posted by Darkpr0
It's ugly, has a poor combat role, and is probably overpriced, but its development is going pretty swimmingly.

You forgot to name all the other problems with the F-35. Are you getting lazy as you get older?

I'll stick with Russian a/c, though, their newer ones still look as sexy as they did in the Cold War.

"Pfffftttt..." See here's your problem Darkpr0, your still locked in 1989 with a one plane bias. Dont you know that the future is single engine multi-role fighters geared towards defeating Soviet armoured units in the German Fulda gap, facing double digit SAM's head on and using NCW techniques? ..... Oh no wait, that's the problem with the F-35 isn't it?

LEE.

I'll admit, I don't know much about the F-35 or F-22, but what I DO know is this: The company I used to work for had to re-create the AWACS radar simulator. All we had to do is reverse engineer what Boeing had already done. Simple task, right? Wrong....it is now 7 or 8 years into the project and there are still many many bugs. This project pales in comparison to coming up with entirely new systems...and that's just the radar/computer side of it...frankly, if they have the entire thing R&D'd and coming off the assembly line in 14 years, that'd be pretty impressive.