Britain, Netherlands May Commit To Fighters Soon
A worsening global economy hasn't made much of a dent in the
international sales prospects for Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint
Strike Fighter, a Pentagon official told a defense industry
conference this week.
USAF Maj. Gen. Charles Davis told the Reuters Aerospace and
Defense Summit in Washington, DC orders for the advanced fighter
aircraft "are coming on the schedule the deals were supposed to
come on," despite economic concerns and rumblings from some
quarters about the plane's abilities.
Great Britain -- which funded development of the aircraft, along
with Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, Canada, Denmark, Norway and
Australia -- is slated to commit to three F-35s in the next
production batch, according to Davis. The Netherlands also has an
option for one F-35 from that lot, known as Low-Rate Initial
Production Lot 3, though getting clearance for the sale from
lawmakers may take "some time."
Davis adds he expects new customers to commit to the aircraft,
as well. Israel may order as many as 25 planes in 2009, and
Singapore may place an order in 2010. Japan is also expected to
submit a "letter of request" for pricing and delivery slots, the
first step to ultimately acquiring the plane.
While those orders pale in comparison to the 2,443 F-35s the US
military is expected to buy -- the bulk of which are slated for the
USAF -- any foreign interest in the fighter would be a needed
shot-in-the-arm for the development program, which has been plagued
by cost overruns.
Two F-35s are now in flight test -- a conventional -A model, and
a short takeoff and landing -B variant -- with a third plane, an
F-35C carrier aircraft, expected to join the test program
shortly.
The aircraft has not been without its critics. As ANN reported, in September
industry watcher Winston Wheeler and Pierre Sprey, an aide to
then-Defense Secretary James Schlesinger in the early 1970s, said
combat simulations against a variety of current aircraft showed
"the F-35 is a dog," when compared against Saab's Gripen, the
Dassault Rafale, MiG-35 and Sukhoi Su-35, and the Eurofighter
Typhoon.
Pentagon insiders and Lockheed officials alike bristle at such
comments. "They have a very shallow view of what an airplane is,"
Davis said. "Their measure of an airplane's success is what its air
show profile looks like, which to me should be its last
measure."
The F-35 is intended to ultimately replace a slew of fighter
aircraft worldwide, including Lockheed F-16s and Boeing F/A-18
Hornets.