They were jointly procured and operated so more joint than JSTARS or F-111 which were only ever operated by 1 service. Since their argument was based on lifecycle costs they most certainly should have been included.

I’ve wondered but never asked if VFA-154 has ever deployed with VMFA-314. Should have asked when I had the chance.

Combat system.

Been there and done that. The refits were pretty easy in comparison to most.

You’re more likely to lose a boat of two out of 16 than a boat or two out of 4. You can park the SSGNs pretty far out if your targets are close to the coast. The Virginias will have other tasks that is not amenable for 16 of them to be puttering about like a SSGN avoiding detection a couple hundred nm away from the…

Its a net loss of 8 payload tubes and 8 swimmer lockout tubes, space for 264 SEAL/MARSOC troops and 4 Small Combatant Joint Command Center.

Replacing the computers on boats is easy (relatively speaking) and ends up leaving extra room and power available.

Yes, the internal payload is either 2 1000 lb GBU-32 JDAMs, 6 GBU-39 SDB I or 4 GBU-53 SDB II until the bay is refit in 2020. Given that the GBU-53 won’t likely IOC until 2017 any conflict the F-35B is in will have either 6 SDB I or 8 SDB II for CAS. Maybe Brimstone 2 someday. I dunno if you can cram 6 in a bay but…

They knew they could get away with it after the 2008 invasion of Georgia.

Reposting from before since someone is referencing that terrible RAND report again.

There’s no study that shows you can get 3 planes for less than the F-35 without ignoring successful joint programs.

Never heard of the Internet or Beta I take it?

It’s 13,000 miles from Whiteman to say Korea. It was 15 hours to Kosovo.

We don’t have many B-2s and you can’t fly them from an amphib. Nor do you want to risk them unnecessarily since that’s one leg of our nuclear triad.

The flyaway cost is $139M for the F-35B.

Presumably 9 F-5s from VMFT-401 out of Yuma since that’s the marine aggressor squadron but could be F-18s or F-16s if they went to Fallon.

I see you are still avoiding reporting the F-35b did well in both strike and in a 4 on 9 engagement:

Marines formally declare IOC for F-35.

It’s not just air superiority but also the IADS threat. It’s not a half truth at all unless you expect all potential enemies to simply roll over for us.

I find it kinda amusing that 2 days after the interview with Lt. Gen Davis there’s still no post on FA on how well the F-35 “allegedly” did in the operational readiness inspection.