Where’s your number then, jackass? UAE and DoD reported mine. In fact, once you included all support costs, the number was $250 million per plane.

What kind of half assed strawman is this? 75% of my post was about range.

Are you going to trot out the $30 million figure for the F-16 again? Because if someone can actually buy a 2015 edition Viper for that kind of money, the UAE is going to want a partial refund on the $150 million they paid for each of theirs.

Because the world isn’t run by internet commentors, who often manage to be less informed than even a congresscritter.

LRIP 8 F-35A with F135-GE-100 was $108M.

People keep reposting shit like this...I want to know where it came from. Because it’s fraudulent. There is nothing about the STOVL system that requires the F-35’s layout. The layout was dictated by A) Range B) Stealth C) Cost, in that order.

I wouldn’t say biased (the word is overused), but I would say myopic, and it affects their content. Like the bullshit F-35 vs F-16 story you reposted 2 months ago, which was a probe of whether or not it was safe to relax the flight envelope. Which, turns out, they could as it’s pretty much impossible to depart the jet…

Because you can’t buy 4 F/A-18Es for one F-35C. An F/A-18E runs about $70million in FY2015 dollars. In FY2020 dollars, that will increase to about $75 million, not counting any upgrades Boeing might want to add to today’s model. So, today’s cost + inflation, which is something a LOT of people here forget, particularly…

The F-15SA runs about $130 million per copy, versus the $90 million F-35A.

Not really. The F-35 is already cleared for 14 A2A missiles, and they’re working on adding an additional pair of AIM-120’s for the internal bays.

See, the problem with your argument is that you’re talking out of your ass. You’re comparing flyaway cost of a F-15SA (the cost of the airframe) to the lifecycle cost of an F-35 (which is airframe + R&D + lifetime maintenance and pilot hours, + spares + fuel cost over 40 years). At best, that’s really fucking stupid.…

Huh? The behavior is shaped by the market itself. Computers get cheaper and more useful, therefor people buy more and more of them. Meat has been roughly flat in price over the last century, while incomes have soared, therefore people buy meat.

There’s a saying: go fast, go far, carry a lot when you get there. Pick 2. The F-35 is compromised in the same way ALL aircraft are compromised. Even if you don’t compromise on a single technical spec, you end up with a B-2 that costs 1/3 as much as an aircraft carrier. Per the Lightning, the STOVL engine isn’t even…

F-35 is still in LRIP. It wouldn’t really matter whether or not its software or weapons are ready because all F-35’s (minus about a dozen test aircraft) built from the beginning until 2018 will be used for the sole purpose of training so there will actually be enough qualified pilots to man all 2,500 F-35’s when…

The bay doors help create a cushion of air underneath the fuselage during vertical flight, much like the strakes added to Harrier II’s.

1) Yes, but you don’t really need them. Most of the test landings in the early phases of testing were done by looking out the window and watching the altimeter in the cockpit.

Why is a rich guy republican? Is there another party that advocates more for policies that benefit the rich?

You use “liberal” like an American would. Most places outside the 50 states use the term properly and apply them to right-leaning parties which espouse the rights of the individual, which is what the word means. Liberal rights = individual rights, which is why the term “liberal democracy” exists.

It’s called “quitting and getting a new job”. It works even better when you can get away with doing it on short notice. Hard pull off in the recession, sure, but it’s getting easier every day.

Not enough. Let’s be honest, no amount of money could ever be enough.