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19FortyFive: A place where experts analyze defense, national security, foreign policy, and politics. We welcome all viewpoints and ideas.
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News
The Pentagon Cut the B-2 Bomber Program From $75,400,000,000 to $61,100,000,000 and Made Every Aircraft More Expensive. Cutting the Order From 132 to 21 Nearly Quadrupled the Cost per Bomber.
18+ hour, 4+ min ago (846+ words) What the money bought when it came to the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber: Four General Electric F118s at 17,300 pounds of thrust each, a 172-foot wingspan, 336,500 pounds maximum takeoff weight, 167,000 pounds of fuel and 60,000 pounds of payload, 6,000 nautical miles without a tanker, above…...
Sweden's Saab JAS-39 Gripen E Costs About $4,700 to $9,900 per Flight Hour Against $38,000 to $42,000 for an F-35A and Up to $68,000 for an F-22 Raptor. It Has No Stealth Airframe, and a Handful of Conscripts With 1 Technician Can Rearm It on a Public Road in Under 20 Minutes.
2+ day, 6+ hour ago (559+ words) A small country facing a much larger neighbor cannot outspend its way to air power. Everything about the JAS 39 Gripen follows from that one sentence....
The US Air Force Built Only 21 B-2 Spirits and They Cost About $2,000,000,000 Each. It Wants at Least 100 B-21 Raiders at Roughly $750,000,000 Apiece.
3+ day, 17+ hour ago (498+ words) The B-2 cost $2,000,000,000 a copy because only 21 were built. The B-21 was designed from the start to avoid that, with cost written in as a performance requirement....
The US Air Force Retired the F-117 Nighthawk in 2008 and Never Stopped Flying It. The Service Now Says the Aircraft Will Stay in the Air Until 2034 — 26 Years After Its Own Retirement.
3+ day, 23+ hour ago (598+ words) The F-117 Nighthawk was retired in 2008. It is still flying, and the Air Force says it will keep flying until 2034 — longer in retirement than most aircraft serve....
Northrop Spent More Than $750,000,000 of Its Own Money on the F-20 Tigershark Without a Dollar of Pentagon Funding. It Sold 0 Aircraft and Wrote Off About $1,200,000,000.
4+ day, 2+ hour ago (595+ words) Northrop built the F-20 Tigershark entirely with its own money. It out-turned the F-16, needed half the maintenance, cost less — and not one air force on earth bought it....
The Dassault Rafale Fighter Costs About $16,500 an Hour to Fly and an F-35A Costs About $42,000. The Rafale Is Not Stealthy, and It Is Selling Better Than It Ever Has.
4+ day, 18+ hour ago (657+ words) A Rafale costs roughly $16,500 per flight hour against about $42,000 for an F-35A. Dassault's answer to stealth is not to hide — it is to out-network what it cannot outrun....
The US Navy Fixed a Price on Stealth Technology Nobody Had Invented Yet, and the A-12 Avenger II Never Flew. 35 Years Later Boeing Lost $4,900,000,000 in a Single Year on the Same Kind of Contract.
5+ day, 1+ hour ago (1238+ words) Lockheed refused to bid. Northrop refused to bid, and told the Navy its cost estimate was at least $2,000,000,000 short. The contract fixed a price of $4,840,000,000 on stealth coatings, composites and a radar that did not yet exist. The team that…...
Boeing Spent $67,000,000 of Its Own Money Building the YF-118G Bird of Prey Stealth Aircraft. It Flew 38 Times on Landing Gear From a Beech King Air and an Ejection Seat From a Harrier.
5+ day, 23+ hour ago (932+ words) The YF-118G “Bird of Prey” was arguably one of the most unique, best-looking aircraft ever built. If you think it resembled a sci-fi spacecraft from Hollywood, you would not be wrong. The aircraft was named after the Klingon Bird of Prey…...
The US Air Force’s F-22 Raptor Stealth Fighter Is Fighting In a World It Was Never Designed to Fly In
6+ day, 18+ hour ago (498+ words) Lockheed Martin holds a $10,900,000,000 contract to modernize the F-22 Raptor. Production ended in 2011, so the US Air Force can never build another one to replace a loss....
The ‘Retired’ US Air Force F-117 Nighthawk ‘Stealth Fighter’ Will Now Fly Until 2034 Thanks To China's J-20 and Russia's Su-57
1+ week, 17+ hour ago (851+ words) Fifty-nine were built. Each carried two bombs. The Air Force retired the type in 2008 and still has 45 of them, and intends to keep flying them until at least 2034....