Tony Williams wrote:
"Thomas Schoene" wrote in message
link.net...
Tony Williams wrote:

Now let's look at the opposition. The 'European standard' 27mm
Mauser
BK 27, selected over any US gun by the JSF contenders, weighs 100 kg
and uses much less space (only one barrel).

Of course, the BK27 was then abandoned by Lockheed Martin after the
JSF
source selection and replaced by a 25mm GAU-12/U Gatling gun.

I understand that was at the initiative of GD, who happened to be
given the contract for designing the JSF's BK 27 gun installation and
also just happen to make the GAU-12/U (shouldn't they have declared an
interest, or something?) .....their argument was on cost grounds,

And especially life-cycle costing. Adopting 27mm introduces the absurd
situation of having at least four different calibers of guns fielded in
tactical aircraft (20mm, 25mm, 30mm (GAU-8), and then 27mm), with the
corresponding inventory issues and overhead costs.

From the Marine Corps pespective, caliber diversity may have been a
particular concern. The Marines already use 20mm, and 25mm, and plan to
introduce 30mm in the EFV (nee AAAV). Adding yet another caliber may have
been an unwanted complication for a service that is pushing for maximum
streamlining of its logistics.

notquality (and I suspect they may have received a sympathetic hearing
in favour of a US gun rather than a German one, especially post-Iraq).

Im pretty certain the decision predates the Iraq situation, so this was not
a factor.

The BK 27 was originally selected purely on merit.

When you're talking about contracting, "merit" always includes an economic
dimension. Cost was indeed one of the main selection criteria for the
overall JSF program, so all the components were likely selected with an eye
toward their cost as well as operational effectiveness.

From what I read about the decision at the time, the cost of the BK 27 rose
sharply from the original projections after award, and that's what triggered
the change of gun. Whether that's just GD spin is of course unanswerable.

--
Tom Schoene Replace "invalid" with "net" to e-mail
"If brave men and women never died, there would be nothing
special about bravery." -- Andy Rooney (attributed)