from Lockheed Martin,
the price of America's F35's has gone down, the
most recently contracted unit costs for
Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) lot 7 are:
- F-35A: $98 million
- F-35B: $104 million
- F-35C: $116 million
I should
point out that there is one non-optional item not included in
the above prices, the engine, but it does seem to mean that the order for
2,400 of these aircraft will be fulfilled, so I guess there was a bit of a
flutter last week when at the MAKS air
show in Moscow, Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (RUAC) unveiled
a model of what appears to be a drone that hunts F-35s, according to FlightGlobal, the head of UAC claims the F-35 hunter will
have a,
“deeply-integrated
electronic warfare system that not only provides a protective electromagnetic
sphere around the aircraft to counter air-to-air missiles, but also cloaks it
from radars.”
the basic
idea appears to be that the F-35 is designed to have powerful
sensors, but it has a very limited capacity to carry missiles stealthily inside
its body, making missiles miss and hiding from sensors are a good way to beat
the F-35, to properly find and destroy F-35s, it looks like this as-yet-unnamed
drone plans to use radar similar to that of China’s
Divine Eagle 2, which will let it find low profile stealth aircraft, such
as the F-35 or the F-22, so the arms race seems to show no sign of slowing down
as I guess the F35 will now have to have a plan to beat the new RUAC produced
F35 hunter drone if it ever goes into production.
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