
weasel1962 wrote:If the Navy had waited like the air force for the F-35C instead of SH buys, the carrier fleet would be in serious trouble today no matter how much better the F-35C is compared to SH.
Bravo Sierra, to put it politely.
The F-35C was to replace the Classic F-18 and not the SH. The USN chose to not ramp up F-35C buys after the final hardware config was tested (ie Block 3i) and instead decided to wait till IOT&E to make that call. The concurrency cost of Block 3i to 3F can be measured in tens of thousands. In the meantime, they decided to retire the Classic Hornets early as an excuse to buy more SH. The wartime support costs of the SH as compared to the F-35C in addition to the increased costs due to a lowering of the F-35C buy easily erases any cost benefit to buying the SH.