F-35 fighter’s issues adding up

http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130922/BIZ/309229960/1031/BIZ

F-35 fighter’s issues adding up
Tony Capaccio | Bloomberg News
Published: September 22, 2013 3:00 a.m.

WASHINGTON – Tires that wear out too soon are adding to the troubles facing Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35, the Pentagon’s costliest weapons system.

~snip~

While replacing worn-out tires may pale as a challenge compared with keeping combat-ready software on track, fixing jittery images in the pilot’s helmet ($500 grand) and reining in rising production costs, it’s emblematic of challenges that the Pentagon must resolve to reduce what’s now a $1.1 trillion estimate for operating and supporting a planned fleet of 2,443 aircraft for 55 years.

The F-35 has a projected price tag of $391.2 billion for development and purchase of the fleet, up 68 percent from the projection in 2001, as measured in current dollars.

The Pentagon is working with Lockheed Martin and Birmingham, Britain-based Dunlop Tyres on a new design for the landing-gear tires that will be introduced next year, DellaVedova said in an emailed statement. In the meantime, Dunlop has provided a tire that’s “improved but still unacceptable,” he said.



unhappycamper comment: Perhaps in an alternate universe our pwoners could buy 2,443 of these things, but I doubt it will happen in this universe.