"Scott Ferrin" wrote
"Tarver Engineering" wrote:


It is because of the Peter Principle that Lockmart's F-22 is so
expensive.
If the buy is cut another 1/3 as I expect, your favorite fighter will
cost
over $400 million a copy. It is what I wrote in '98 and I have been
attacked at ram for some years on the issue, but I am, unfortunately for
the
American tax payer, completely correct again.


And yet you still don't get that it's because of the fixed R&D etc.
Flyaway cost is quoted at about $150 million. The fixed stuff has to
be paid whether we buy ten or a thousand.

ITYM "has already been paid". Cancelling F22 now runs all that money down
the drain.

As for it being my
favorite, that would be the F120 / YF-23. IMO they picked the *worst*
airframe/engine combination. At this point though it's the F-22 or
NOTHING. Unless you think those F-15s will last forever? I can't wait
to hear the first imbecil suggest we cancel the F-22 and wait until
the F-35 comes along. If they think aircraft are falling apart and
wasting money to be kept flying they ain't seen nothin' yet. And you
can bank on the fact that ten yeasrs from now dumbass politicians will
be slashing the number of F-35s purchased and then being surprised
when the cost skyrockets.

The "New Airplane" is always the pig you haven't kissed yet. You know all
about the pig you've already kissed and how foul its breath is while the New
Pig is so pretty and pink. Outyear costs_always_increase to the point that
building the Old Pig will save tons of money. And get you hardware sooner.

I do think the F-22 SPO could use a Chinese Refrigerator Factory Incentive
Program. Twenty years from ATF to LRIP is absurd.