As USAF Fleet Plans Evolve, Can the F-35A Program Survive Intact?

摘要

Original estimates tor costs, schedules and quantities of the Lockheed Martin F-35 upon contract award in October 2001 proved highly unreliable over the fighter program's nearly two-decade life span, but one critical number did not: 1,763. That four-digit figure represents program of record quantity for the U.S. Air Force—the F-35's largest customer by far—accounting for more than half of all projected orders by U.S. and international customers. The Navy and Marine Corps, the second-and third-largest buyers of the combat aircraft, respectively, downsized their planned F-35 fleet by 400 aircraft in 2004. But the Air Force's quantity never budged.