The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program is the military’s largest
aircraft development program. The F-35 is a stealthy aircraft—one that is
difficult for adversaries to detect by radar and other air defense sensors.
The objective of the program is to produce three versions of that aircraft:
the conventional takeoff F-35A for the Air Force, the short takeoff and
vertical landing (STOVL) F-35B for the Marine Corps, and the carrier-based
F-35C for the Navy.

Through 2016, 285 F-35s had been purchased for the U.S. military: 178
F-35As, 71 F-35Bs, and 36 F?35Cs.

Current plans call for purchasing 2,158 more F?35s through 2038. The
Department of Defense (DoD) has estimated that the remaining cost of those
purchases, including the cost to complete development, will amount to $265
billion (in nominal dollars). The Marine Corps and the Air Force declared
their versions of the F-35 operational in 2015 and 2016, respectively. The
Navy expects to declare its version operational by 2019.

Under this option, DoD would halt further production of the F-35 and instead
purchase the most advanced versions of older, non-stealthy fighter aircraft
that are still in production: the F-16 Fighting Falcon for the Air Force and
the F/A-18 Super Hornet for the Navy and Marine Corps.

The services would operate the F-35s that have already been purchased. By
the Congressional Budget Office’s estimates, the option would reduce the
need for discretionary budget authority by $29 billion from 2018 through
2026 if the F-16s and F/A-18s were purchased on the same schedule as that
currently in place for the F-35s. Outlays would decrease by $23 billion over
that period.

Additional savings would accrue from 2027 through 2038 if F-16s and F/A-18s
were purchased instead of the F-35s that are scheduled to be purchased in
those later years. However, the Navy and Air Force are both planning to
develop entirely new aircraft with fighter-like capabilities to be fielded
in the 2030s and might choose to replace some planned F-35s with those
aircraft instead.

An advantage of this option is that it would reduce the cost of replacing
DoD’s older fighter aircraft while still providing new F-16s and F/A-18s
with improved capabilities—including modern radar, precision weapons, and
digital communications—that would be able to defeat most of the threats that
the United States is likely to face in the coming years.

The F-35s that have already been purchased would augment the stealthy B-2
bombers and F-22 fighters that are currently in the force, improving the
services’ ability to operate against adversaries equipped with advanced air
defense systems. The military has successfully operated a mix of stealthy
and non-stealthy aircraft since the advent of the F-117 stealth fighter in
the 1980s.

A disadvantage of this option is that a force consisting of a mix of
stealthy and non-stealthy aircraft would be less flexible against advanced
enemy air defense systems. An inability to neutralize such defenses in the
early stages of a conflict might preclude the use of F-16s and F/A-18s,
effectively reducing the number of fighters that the United States would
have at its disposal.

Another disadvantage is that the services would have to continue to operate
more types of aircraft instead of concentrating on a smaller number of
types. For example, F-16s would remain in the Air Force’s inventory longer
than currently planned, and the Marine Corps might need to field new F/A-18s
to augment its F-35Bs.

Depending on how expensive it was to operate the F-35, the added costs of
maintaining mixed fleets of fighters for a longer period could offset some
of the savings under this option.

Click here for the full story, with table, on the CBO website.
https://www.cbo.gov/budget-options/2016/52200

http://imra.org.il/story.php3?id=71861

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