"Ian Craig" wrote in message
...

"killfile" wrote in message
...
"Alan Minyard" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 5 Nov 2003 18:11:09 -0000, "killfile"
wrote:

"Alan Minyard" wrote in message

My facts are straight, the orders are from the US Air Force, Navy,
and Marines. The other countries have options to buy, and
several, including the Brits and Canadians have made verbal
commitments. There are always (in the US, at any rate) fall back
scenarios in the event of major program glitches. There is
no serious talk of canceling the F-35, as no other aircraft
can perform its mission. You do realize it has a STOL
variant? And we can quite easily afford them. You do
not seem to have any idea of the size of US budgets.

Al Minyard

So what you're saying is ... there's no export sales.

You are, in fact, admitting you were wrong. Amazing.

Matt

No, I am saying that there have been no payments. Several
countries are *planning* to purchase the F-35, as it is a
unique and extremely capable aircraft.

Al Minyard

It's fine to say a country is 'planning' to purchase something, but
actually
ordering it is a different matter. the Czech republic was 'planning' to
order Gripens and Austria was 'planning' to order Eurofighters but it
doesn't look like either of those will happen.

Austria has ordered (12?) Typhoons


Whoops, you're right, they did order 18 Typhoons back in August.

Unfortunately, the Austrian opposition is fighting tooth and nail to get
that order cancelled, so the future of the program is very cloudy indeed.
Their proposition is that they instead take MIG-29SMT's (or SM2's ... or
whatever the latest MIG-29 varient is this week) as an off-set against the
debt that Russia owes to Austria.

Matt