Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II fighter jet (pictured).Picture: Flip from Lockheed Martin F-35 Facebook
USNI News reported that the Pentagon submitted a research service report to the US Congress on the procurement of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) case, and determined that it will be worth US$8.4 billion (about NT$231.5 billion) in 2022. Procurement of 48 F-35As for the Air Force, 17 F-35Bs for the Marine Corps, and 20 F-35Cs for the Navy and Marine Corps, for a total of 85 new F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.
The report pointed out that the U.S. Department of Defense originally planned to purchase new aircraft with 9.4 billion US dollars, and requested 2.1 billion US dollars of research and development funds. After the House of Representatives and the Senate, the Department of Defense finally obtained 8.4 billion yuan for the F-35 procurement in 2022. Add an additional $818 million in “pre-purchase” and agree to modify two of the F-35s of each variant to a “test configuration.”
The US Congress is dissatisfied with the continued capability development and delivery delays of the F-35, so the requirements other than the “C2D2” program testing and evaluation have been taken with a reservation. The so-called “C2D2” is simply a software version update operation like a smartphone. Currently, it is updated once a year, but the US military hopes to shorten the update cycle. The Pentagon believes that the F-35 promises significant progress in military capabilities, but like many high-tech items developed by the U.S. military before, achieving this capability will push the product beyond the original budget and behind the planned schedule. .
According to our understanding, “current” statistics of the United States will eventually purchase as many as 2,456 F-35s of various versions, plus 8 “participating countries” of the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Australia and Turkey, and For example, the procurement needs of “allied countries” such as Israel and Japan, with more than 3,300 global orders, will test Lockheed Martin’s production capacity.
The U.S. military will purchase 48 F-35As for the Air Force, 17 F-35Bs for the Marine Corps, and 20 F-35Cs for the Navy and Marine Corps in 2022 for $8.4 billion
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