Re: A Foggia le ali dell'F-35



Comunque per quanto riguarda l'F-35 mai fidarsi di quanto scrivono i media italiani perchè danno sempre una versione ottimista dello stato dell'arte. In realtà i problemi tecnici, (peso, calibrazioni, ecc.) e sul Financial Times si scrive chiaramente che non saranno pronti per il 2014 almeno quelli imbarcati, si sussegono.
Non solo, ma ogni anno il costo aumenta del 4% all'anno.

Navy’s new carriers to deploy old aircraft

The most powerful ships ever to sail in the Royal Navy will be forced to fly ageing Harrier jets because the replacement F35 Joint Strike Fighters (JSFs) will not be ready in time.

The first of two new aircraft carriers is due to enter service in 2014 and the government had planned to operate Britain’s next generation combat plane, the JSF, from the ships. However, it emerged on Tuesday that the Navy will instead initially have to operate the latest version of the Harrier jump jet, an aircraft first designed several decades ago.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
MoD offered £100m saving on carriers - Jan-21
Shipbuilding unions fear delays may hit jobs - Jan-18
MoD may delay carrier contract - Jan-10
MoD gives nod for aircraft carriers - Jul-25
Anglo-French aircraft carriers proposed - Apr-22
Minister reaffirms plan for aircraft carriers - Sep-01

Giving evidence to the Commons’ defence select committee, David Gould, the MoD chief operating officer for equipment and support, said: “We actually do plan to use the [Harrier] GR9 on the first of the carriers. The idea that we will have a carrier’s worth of fully ... equipped JSFs in 2014 is not going to happen.”

The $276bn (£140bn) JSF programme is the most expensive armaments programme ever and Britain is the biggest partner to the US.

The UK had originally intended to acquire 150 JSFs but at Tuesday’s hearing General Sir Kevin O’Donoghue, the chief of defence material, admitted that the eventual number would depend on the final price – which has yet to be decided.

Francis Tusa, editor of Defence Analysis, said: “They are admitting there is no cost control from this end of the pond. There is a slight degree of unreality here. JSF costs are going up something like 4 per cent a year. By the time we start laying out money for production, the aircraft will be 30 per cent more expensive than we first budgeted.”

General O’Donoghue also acknowledged that there were likely to be cutbacks or delays to major equipment procurement programmes. “I suspect we will have to [delay or cut some],” he said.

Asked when spending was last so tight, he said: “In the late 1970s, we had some challenging times then.”

Separately, Mr Gould identified the Nimrod coastal surveillance aircraft programme as the one where the department is seeing the greatest “cost growth”.

The reasons for the continuing cost overruns were due to a problem with pitch on the aircraft, only discovered during the flight trials.

It emerged, however, that a similar problem was first identified on an earlier version of aircraft.

Responding to a question on why the government had not yet signed a manufacturing contract with the industry alliance building the two aircraft carriers, Mr Gould said he would be disappointed if a contract had not been signed before the end of March. “The fact that we are going through a review of the [defence procurement] programme of the nature we talked about early on ... it is as serious as you have known it in recent years, yes ... that is not an atmosphere when it is easy to take decisions on big commitments,” he said.