I have recently been posting on the upcoming Obama administration’s decision on how many (if any) additional Lockheed Martin F-22 fighter aircraft to purchase.
The decision will be based on a multitude of factors and considerations.
In previous, and probably in ongoing and future deliberations, another fifth generation fighter aircraft being developed by Lockheed Martin—the F-35 Lightning II—has been, is, and will be a factor.
It is a factor, because of tight budgets, fierce competition for such limited resources, and because of real or perceived differences in various aspects related to cost, schedule, need, roles and capabilities, etc.between the two aircraft.
My personal opinion is that each of the two fighters has its own distinct and unique mission, roles and capabilities, cost/schedule advantages and disadvantages, and that, while there may be some overlap in certain roles and capabilities, the two aircraft are complementary and should not be viewed as mutually exclusive.
Having said that, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is such a huge, important, multinational program, encompassing so many nations, military services, and potentially replacing so many different types of aircraft around the world ( F-16, F/A-18, F-117, A-10, AV-8B, Sea Harrier, GR.7, F-111 and Tornado), that any real or perceived “issues” affecting the F-35, reverberate literally around the world.
One of the nations participating in the development of the Joint Strike Fighter is the Netherlands.
Thus, it wasn’t too surprising to read an article today in the Dutch NRC Handelsblad that cited the F-35 as a factor in upcoming decisions to replace the Dutch F-16 aircraft.
The article, “New discussion about Dutch fighter planes,” discusses how “The Dutch ministry of defence’s plan to replace its F-16 fighter planes by 2014” may be premature according to research carried out at Leiden University:
Kreemers, a former defence ministry spokesman, says that given the planes’ generally accepted lifespan of 6000 flight hours, and that they are used for 175 hours or less per year, most of the fighters can remain in service until at least 2020. The oldest ones date back to 1984. Other countries are assuming an 8000-hour lifespan for the plane, suggesting that the Dutch defence forces could retain this jet fighter even longer…
However, other Dutch Defense sources warn that the ageing F-16s must be replaced earlier because of increasing maintenance costs and because they are “‘aging operationally’ i.e. they are becoming less suitable to counter the changing threats they face in action.”
According to the Handelsblad,
The replacement for the F-16s, which has to be decided on next year, is a politically sensitive issue. The Dutch government is planning to sign a contract in May for the purchase of two new F-35 planes, usually referred to as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), without knowing the actual cost of this purchase. These US-built planes would be the first of 85 JSFs that are due to replace the current Dutch fleet of 138 F-16s.
The Dutch audit office last week criticised the ministry of defence for failing to provide adequate information about the JSF. The JSF program office reckoned in 2002 that the planes would cost 37.2 million dollars each; by 2007 that price had risen to 49.5 million. This could saddle the Dutch budget with extra expenses of 360 million, the audit office warned.
Estimates of the production cost of the JSF plane have consistently been too low, as US defence undersecretary John Young explains to secretary of defence Robert Gates in a memo leaked last week via insidedefense.com. In that memo Young writes that this is partly due to cost calculations being based on the experimental prototypes, whose weight was lower than that of the final design.
Finally,
Meanwhile, public and political resistance to the JSF project is growing in the Netherlands. People living near military airbases are worried about a fourfold increase in noise pollution produced by the more powerful and louder JSF engines, which has been predicted by a US report. Members of parliament are complaining that the current government hesitated too long before finally deciding to examine other, cheaper alternatives. Although the centre-left coalition of Christian Democrats, Labour and the small ChristienUnie party remains committed to the JSF test programme, it has now agreed to another independent investigation into other potential suppliers, as required by parliament. The most recent comparison of alternative planes was carried out in 2008, well before the onset of the economic crisis.
Yes, the F-35 JSF program is a huge multinational program, but so is the economic crisis: huge and multinational.
F-35 Photo by Lockheed Martin
[Edited 04-08-2009 to correct typo in title]
