tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1362578068582861067.post6890354404001685445..comments2023-10-12T10:45:42.530-04:00Comments on Why the F-35?: It appears the F-35 will be South Korea's choiceBarry Graffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02463335145842065698noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1362578068582861067.post-11354310512717536672013-11-16T19:12:53.272-05:002013-11-16T19:12:53.272-05:00While it is true that the GWS (Gross Weapon System...While it is true that the GWS (Gross Weapon System) cost for an FY2014 F-35A is $176 million, Korea would not be buying FY2014 jets.<br /><br />If you look at the budget docs for the USAF, they (the USAF) will be paying $142 for FY2015, $128 for FY2016, $120 for FY2017, $107 for FY2018, etc.<br /><br />Add to that the lowered cost due to the increase build rate due to the Korean order and the cost goes down further.<br /><br />For future reference, <a href="http://www.saffm.hq.af.mil/budget/" rel="nofollow">THIS LINK</a> is for the USAF budget office and <a href="http://www.saffm.hq.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-130408-079.pdf" rel="nofollow">THIS LINK</a> is for the specific budert document involved.<br /><br />One more thing, South Korea will not be standing up training bases and buying large simulator complexes so it's non-recurring costs will be lower than what the USAF pays.<br /><br />btw, the latest numbers from the program state that the F-35A is about 10-15% more sustainment, not "much higher".SpudmanWPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13808856347047254385noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1362578068582861067.post-40668808307373014482013-11-16T18:25:52.664-05:002013-11-16T18:25:52.664-05:00The problem will come, as it did before, with the ...The problem will come, as it did before, with the budget. This plane even with all its problems may be still too expensive for ROK, which has (or had) a budget of $7.4 billion. For sixty planes that comes out to $123 million per plane, which we all know is way below the actual cost of this low performing turkey.<br /><br />The US budgeted $176 million per unit for the F-35A this fiscal year, and we also know that sustainment costs are much higher than legacy aircraft. So while the ROK Joint Chiefs may want this plane (or may not) there still remains the problem of paying for it. The sale would be under FMS which means ROK can't legally pay less than the US cost of manufacture.Don Baconhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00444968656600936525noreply@blogger.com