Several Asian countries are interested in the American F-35 JSF. But Canada’s U-turn on buying the jet won’t encourage Asian partners to sign up any time soon. Will the program survive?
For a stealth plane, the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) certainly seems to cop a lot of flak.
It was the future weapon system that promised so much — enough for the United States and its allies to draw up wide-eyed plans for over 3,100 JSFs while the plane was still little more than an idea. The JSF was going to guarantee air superiority for the U.S. and its partners well into the middle of this century. But ever since rising costs, technical complexities, and missed deadlines have badly hurt the machine’s credibility, to the point where some critics advocate freighting the F-35 straight to the museum before it ever enters active service.
Of all the program’s setbacks, this month’s announcement that Canada was hitting the “reset” button on its procurement of 65 aircraft is probably the most serious. Ottawa, one of eight international partners working with the U.S. on the program, had been staunchly pro-JSF until an independent audit found that the fleet would cost $45.8bn over its 42-year life span — almost double initial government estimates. The reset doesn’t mean that Canada has dumped the F-35 entirely, but it would now look politically clumsy for the government to do another 180 degree turn and buy the jet after all. At any rate, Ottawa is examining cheaper alternatives.
Other partner nations are also wavering, but the biggest threat to the program could be in the U.S. itself, where up to $500 billion may need to be shed from the defense budget over the coming decade, in addition to cuts already agreed too. As the Pentagon’s most expensive program — currently pegged at $396bn for basic procurement and $1.45 trillion for total through-life costs — it is hard to see how the JSF could emerge unscathed, and for the U.S. to buy the 2,400 models the military desires, if huge savings from the defense budget must be found.
Photo Credit: Flickr (MultiplyLeadership)
View as Single Page
Reddit
Digg
StumbleUpon
Delicious
Technorati
Yahoo
Google
Plurk
Ghenghis
China's J-31 outperform the F35 and is 1/5th the cost. China may even sell some of its J-31 for $0 to some of its friendly countries. Once the foreign market dries up in the face of J-31 competition, the F35 program will implode.
leroy the african
As human, our identities is not defined by just our individuality, but also by race, color, ethnicity and our individual nation or country. thus the need for a chinese, english, german, african, pakistani, india etc to defend and justify his\her individual nation policies and achievements regardless of other nations overwhelming superiority or improvement. history has recorded so many achievements for individual nations; from great chinese merchant explorers through the 14th century and beyond, and the beginning of industrialism in europe, to the first man on the moon and the age of the internet. it is suffice to say that we made this world.
however through all these achievment and the unmentioned attrocities committed by mankind over the centuries, one underlined principle stands among all. FREEDOM. it has always been the catalyst that propels man to dream of crossing unimaginable boundaries to fulfill a desire, it is what prompt us to dream of flying, going to the moon, building automobiles, telephones etc. in a society where FREEDOM is uninhibited , that nation will prosper and overcome all adversity eventually. because the will to live is more powerful than any government, or policies.
the west has utilized this FREEDOM to launch itself as the leader of the technological world and would only keep improving as long as that inherent ability to dream is been utilized unhindered. China can take a quo from this and try to reform their society ,because look what massive progress it has witnessed without total freedom . there is no substitute to total freedom, not surpassing the US as the best economy in the world, or having the most advanced fighter jet. during cold war ,the USSR in some part had the superior technology, after all it did achieve the first trip to the moon. but was defeated in that quest by the US because of a collective will of the people to achieve something greater. in whatever race, or situation. a free mind and society would always prevail.
Jugular
Amen to FREEDOM. That is why you look like a fool without knowing what is really happening out here in the FREE world.
leroy the african
my point exactly. why dont you try and get one of your media outlet out there in china to criticise the communist party or call them a fool and see where that gets you . and since you are participating in this forum, why not tell everybody a china website we can express thesame open and unfiltered comment about anything we want to say about freedom in china. we are all waiting for the link
mike
This article is so vague when it comes to prediction of Indians buying F-35. They have already invested so much into the Russian program they cant back out now, also they don't seem to be complaining about it either. Russia is the only country which can provide them with a cheaper fighter and full technology transfer. Plus with their 70% fleet being Russian i don't think they are ever buying the overpriced F-35. I mean despite all the pressure from the Americans regarding the MRCA contract they chose the French, USA is still an unreliable partner who can put sanctions and run them into trouble, Russians are the ones they trust. When they are not considering Americans for a 10billion deal why would they ever even think about putting their money on America for a deal worth 30-40 billion??….besides India is not seeing any F-35 before 2020 Russians on the other hand are promising a date close to 2017…
Bishop
It's so funny how both Chinese and American commenters are trying to prove that their country has the biggest dick.
Wouldn't it be much wiser to downplay expectations for your respective countries' as much as possible?
Tom F
@Bishop,
Very salient comment there Bishop, who really cares about Chinese vs The Rest battle. China's biggest security threat is internal, Chinese weapons need only be effective against its own people, the rest is pure theatre.
John Chan
@Tom F,
In according to western political science, the world is divided into the following groups, Western, Latin American, Sinic, Hindu, Islamic, Orthodox, African, and Buddhist. Among the groups, Western is the suppressor and exploiter, the remaining groups are the victims of the Western. The Western is an isolated tyranny; it is not The Rest at all.
Islamic is using terrorism to break free the imperialist yoke of the Western, but the Sinic group is breaking free the imperialist yoke of the Western by advancing in commerce, science, technology and literature. Sooner or later the Western has to be brought to the ICC to account for the atrocities it committed against The Rest. Justice is the ultimate weapon to deal with the Western.
Kangmin Zheng
John Chan,
"Islamic is using terrorism to break free the imperialist yoke of the Western"
Are you saying China is on the same side with terrorism?
Jean-Paul
@ John Chan
Are you trying to say that you support the islamic terrorists? Do you know how many innocent civilians have been killed in the middle east due to suicide bombers and terrorists? Its very sick and disturbing that you would support such barbaric behavior.
Besides, the west has been trying to uplift the muslim nations for centuries now and have succeeded with a number of islamic nation. Why don't you mention the various asian and muslim nations that have been uplifted by the west? For example qatar, united arab emirates, oman, bahrain, and saudi arabia have all been prospering greatly with western assistance. Only the islamic nations that are being hostile or are unwilling to change are suffering such as Iran and Pakistan. Hopefully they too can see the light that the west can bring upon them and become good members of the international community.
China has proven that it cannot develop and uplift humanity without the western help and tech, Hong Kong was ruled by China for millenia and it could not develop itself from within. Only with the western help could Hong Kong develop into one of the largest financial markets in the world and begin to prosper. Even Singapore which was heavily influenced by China for centuries could not develop itself until the west entered the asian markets. All of these facts prove that the west has uplifted many nations from poverty…….many more than China has ever in its entire history. China did not even want to uplift the poor koreans and japanese when it was the asian hegemonic power, instead it colonized the koreans and attacked the vietnamese.
Please everyone look at all the nations that are now prospering thanks to the western assistance, how many nations are prospering thanks to Chinese assistance?? the answer is ZERO
Jugular
Who is the number 1 exporter of the AK-47 they weapon of choice of Islamist? And mind you they don't care who they sell arms to whether its a country with these Islamist that kill people name it all nationalities. Who is the country that bypasses embargoes and sell these weapons. Who is the country that bribes African nations just to mine minerals even if that African nation is known to support terrorism and carnage of its own people. If you can answer that then ….ow sorry maybe you can't coz your behind that great firewall…. and your paid to blog
dhaval
@Dayra: please stop ur vintage Cold War politics.
dhaval
Indians are eagerly waiting for a F35 deal.
megakids
Other than "eagerly waiting", what else can the Indians do? Build themselves? Are you kidding?
Soundara Rajan
why India should enter into such dirty business of building mass destruction weapons. It is better to build the economy and build up enough cash so that one could easily buy these toys and keep them for show. Why US is spending such enormous amount of money when there is not a single neighbor capable of threatening is soil or economy. why not spend more and more money for the people so that it could make its economy consumer driven rather than investor driven? It is just a a game of ego between China, US and Russia and countries like India also are sucked in. Now US is keeping its role in middle east just because middle east dwindling Oil reserve. But don't US has found more reserve than entire middle east put together ? Once US stop its dirty game of playing the role of Big Uncle Sam, then all other nations could breath easily, countries like China also need not use its vast engineering brain for making machines of super destruction. US and China should stop boasting on their achievements of producing war machines.
Kanes
Chinese military technology is unproven. They are only propaganda. US designs are battle hardened and proven. The two are therefore not comparable. As long as there is no actual contest, Chinese designs rank par with US designs or close. But in a contest, US designs will come on top easily.
redelman101
Forget the F-35, J-21 or J-31. Iran's stealth flying boat is what we need to worry about. :P