Lumberton From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 4708 posts, RR: 21 Posted (2 years 6 months 2 weeks 1 day 9 hours ago) and read 6741 times:
Boeing and Korean Aerospace Industries have worked out an agreement where the latter will manufacture the conformal weapons bay for the Silent Eagle. To date, there have been no sales of this aircraft announced. Does this agreement "seal the deal" for the first?
Quote: Boeing is offering the F-15SE for South Korea's third-phase F-X fighter acquisition program; bidding is to open in 2012. The F-X III calls for acquiring 40 to 60 aircraft with stealth functions.
Other key contenders include Lockheed Martin with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the Eurofighter Typhoon.
"When all is said and done, more will be said than done".
Shmertspionem From India, joined Aug 2006, 451 posts, RR: 1 Reply 1, posted (2 years 6 months 2 weeks 1 day 4 hours ago) and read 6656 times:
Oh good - unlike the Saudi deal that was worked out by some intellectually challenged moron at the pentagon. This deals good .... the US gets money - the alliance gets strengthened and China gets a message - and while some Koreans resent the US presence at least they're not 2 faced vipers like the Saudis.
Serves China right too - their behaviour in face of the Cheonan incident was appalling ..... and this send the message that obstructionism and intransigence will be punished.
And this third phase of their acquisition process will likely be sole-sourced like the last. Leads one to wonder if Japan could be swayed into buying some should this variant prove extraordinary and the F-35's woes persist.
Which in turn Boeing could use in convincing their biggest potential customer (who is even now looking at extending its fleet's service life) to finally place a stopgap order, or at least refit their younger Eagles, especially during these tough economic times.
Lumberton From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 4708 posts, RR: 21 Reply 3, posted (2 years 6 months 2 weeks 19 hours ago) and read 6549 times:
Quoting DEVILFISH (Reply 2): Which in turn Boeing could use in convincing their biggest potential customer (who is even now looking at extending its fleet's service life) to finally place a stopgap order, or at least refit their younger Eagles, especially during these tough economic times.
That's lock-mart's worst nightmare!
"When all is said and done, more will be said than done".
bikerthai From United States of America, joined Apr 2010, 1588 posts, RR: 4 Reply 4, posted (2 years 6 months 2 weeks 17 hours ago) and read 6510 times:
What are the chances that LM will be allowed to assemble any F-35 in Korea?
As with many foreign military sales, there are much work off-set to be met.
The possibility of F-15K/SE assembled in Korea would go a long way to satisfy the off-set requirement, and the conformal tank is only part of current or future off-set requirement . . . similar to the reason the F-18 weapon bay doors being built in India.
Lumberton From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 4708 posts, RR: 21 Reply 5, posted (2 years 6 months 2 weeks 15 hours ago) and read 6476 times:
bikerthai From United States of America, joined Apr 2010, 1588 posts, RR: 4 Reply 6, posted (2 years 6 months 2 weeks 15 hours ago) and read 6471 times:
Quoting Lumberton (Reply 5): The reference was to USAF ditching the F-35
I give it less than 50% chance that the USAF will drop the F-35 plant given that the FA plant is located in Texas and Boeing has lost much clout in Congress given the latest election result . . . T-Party influence not withstanding.
What are the chances that LM will be allowed to assemble any F-35 in Korea?
As with many foreign military sales, there are much work off-set to be met.
Except that the "potential" customer would not require offsets - only incontrovertible proof to overcome their intransigence.....
Lumberton From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 4708 posts, RR: 21 Reply 8, posted (2 years 6 months 2 weeks 14 hours ago) and read 6431 times:
Quoting bikerthai (Reply 6): Boeing has lost much clout in Congress given the latest election result .
At the risk of taking this thread off topic, but the new Congress is going to be far, far more populist than previously. They'll react to crap like this:
Quote: The A400M is an emblematic programme which Europe could not abandon," Morin told a news conference.
"Giving it up would have meant Europe saying it wanted to be dependent on the United States in the 21st century" in the strategic area of military transport, he added.
One wonders what Gates was smoking when he allowed EADS more time to bid?
"When all is said and done, more will be said than done".
bikerthai From United States of America, joined Apr 2010, 1588 posts, RR: 4 Reply 9, posted (2 years 6 months 2 weeks 14 hours ago) and read 6422 times:
DEVILFISH From Philippines, joined Jan 2006, 4422 posts, RR: 1 Reply 10, posted (2 years 6 months 2 weeks 14 hours ago) and read 6413 times:
Quoting bikerthai (Reply 6): I give it less than 50% chance that the USAF will drop the F-35 plant given that the FA plant is located in Texas and Boeing has lost much clout in Congress given the latest election result . . .
30% is already good odds considering Boeing could realistically only aim for a small portion of the shrinking pie with the update. LM totally losing it is too much to hope for. They will eventually come to grips with the F-35, and maybe the economy will have recovered by that time to allow full-rate production.
KC135TopBoom From United States of America, joined Jan 2005, 11705 posts, RR: 52 Reply 11, posted (2 years 6 months 1 week 5 days 16 hours ago) and read 6169 times:
Given the outlook on the next 10-12 military budgets (thru about 2022), I can see the US Congress ordering suts in the numbers of F-35A/B/Cs the DOD wants. The price per unit is escalating at a rate that even the US cannot afford. How long will it be before the F-22A looks like a bargan to the USAF F-35A?
This actually may put Boeing in a good position to supullement the F-35A with F-15SE, the USN F-35Cs and USMC F-35Bs with F/A-18E/Fs. Also the LM F-16E/F line could benefit and possibly reopen the F-22A line if the price gets right.
So, the F-15SE could have some life in the USAF.
The USAF could save some money by reducing the KC-X buy from 179 tankers to 108 tankers. This would make 5 active squadrons with 12 aircraft each and 6 ANG/USAFR squadrons with 8 aircraft each. Another 108 tankers could happen if the USAF upgrades 108 KC-135Es to the KC-135R, or better.
That would give the USAF 216 KC-767NG equivelent tankers, or 168 equivelent A-330MRTT tankers for the same price as 179 KC-Xs.
Baroque From Australia, joined Apr 2006, 15380 posts, RR: 60 Reply 12, posted (2 years 6 months 1 week 5 days 6 hours ago) and read 6000 times:
Quoting Lumberton (Reply 8): At the risk of taking this thread off topic, but the new Congress is going to be far, far more populist than previously. They'll react to crap like this:
Quote:
The A400M is an emblematic programme which Europe could not abandon," Morin told a news conference.
"Giving it up would have meant Europe saying it wanted to be dependent on the United States in the 21st century" in the strategic area of military transport, he added.
But never to crop like this?
The World’s Only 5th Generation Multirole Fighter
Unconventional. Unprecedented.
The F-35 Lightning II, also known as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), integrates advanced very low observable stealth into a supersonic, highly agile 5th generation fighter. The capabilities built into the F-35 Lightning II provide the pilot with unprecedented situational awareness and unmatched lethality and survivability.
While each variant (F-35A, F-35B, F-35C) is uniquely designed to operate from different bases, all three variants set new standards in network-enabled mission systems, sensor fusion, supportability and maintainability.
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The Korean setting might be one of the few where there is even vaguely a need for this sort of kit or the F15SE.
cosmofly From United States of America, joined May 2009, 648 posts, RR: 0 Reply 13, posted (2 years 5 months 3 weeks 2 days 12 hours ago) and read 5412 times:
The recent incident with North Korea will accelerate the F15SE's deployment with South Korea.
Quote: "Seoul is likely to issue a request for proposals for its F-X3 fighter contract in the first quarter of 2011. The Boeing F-15 Silent Eagle, Eurofighter Typhoon and Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will compete for a deal that could number up to 60 aircraft to replace McDonnell Douglas F-4Es."
Quoting Spacepope (Reply 14): South Korea released it's next procurement wishlist a few days ago. 9 more F-15Ks were requested.
As defense-aerospace reported the delivery of three new F-15Ks to the RoKAF.....
Quote: "DAEGU AIR BASE, Republic of Korea --- Boeing on Nov. 8 delivered three F-15K Slam Eagles to the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) at Daegu Air Base. The company delivered the first three of 21 F-15Ks it is producing under the Next Fighter II contract to the ROKAF in September. The remaining 15 aircraft will be delivered through March 2012."
Meanwhile, Northrop is trying to interest them in M-Scan radars for their F-16s.....
Quote: "Northrop Grumman is proposing a mechanically scanned radar for an F-16 upgrade programme in South Korea, marking a shift in its strategy for the emerging requirement.
The company had previously been focused on selling a new active electronically scanned array named the scaleable agile beam radar (SABR). But now, Northrop believes the Republic of Korea Air Force's needs instead call for its mechanically scanned APG-68(V)9 design.
'I think the (V)9 would suit their purposes really well,' says Dave Wallace, Northrop's manager for F-16 sensor programmes. Similar to the AESA-based SABR, the design provides both synthetic aperture radar (SAR) maps and ground moving target indication imagery, which are key capabilities for launching attacks on ground targets."
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