"Emmanuel Gustin" wrote:
"Tony Williams" wrote in message
m...
"Brett" wrote in message
...

they should be accepted despite that!). Reading between the lines, it
seems most likely that the GAU-12/U did not meet the original
requirements, but when the costs of the BK 27 became an issue, L-M
revisted the requirements and "balanced" them to allow the GAU-12/U to
compete. Or am I just too cynical about the way things work?

Maybe the requirements were changed? IIRC the BK 27 will now
be fixed internal armament only in the CTOL version of the F-35,
which would reduce the importance of the biggest disadvantage of
the GAU-12/U, its weight (and that of its ammunition). For the
STOVL versions weight is more critical, and the BK 27 would
have been the better choice.

Neither of the STOVL JSF proposals had an internal cannon so that probably
means the change occurred before even selected the BK 27 for the USAF
version.