Reasons that will influence Joint Strike Fighter future procurement decisions

[lilaspr]

Delay of F-35 system development, delay of low rate production and full rate production with several years, the uncertainties about a (fixed) price, a “level line price” or a “consortium buy price”, the uncertain delivery schedule and the political situation have caused delays in most of the JSF partner countries. Not only they delayed the decisions, also a lower number will be procured. In the international market no any fixed Foreign Military Sales order could be
materialised. This effects the economy of scale of the production facilities world wide.

Reasons that will influence Joint Strike Fighter future procurement decisions- cause lower F-35

 

[PAFAce]

Delay of F-35 system development, delay of low rate production and full rate production with several years, the uncertainties about a (fixed) price, a “level line price” or a “consortium buy price”, the uncertain delivery schedule and the political situation have caused delays in most of the JSF partner countries. Not only they delayed the decisions, also a lower number will be procured. In the international market no any fixed Foreign Military Sales order could be
materialised. This effects the economy of scale of the production facilities world wide.

Yeah, the JSF isn't looking as rosy anymore, but I don't think all the countries will back-out or reduce the numbers. Canada still has full plans to get about 80 of them. For the Canadians, no other aircraft makes as much sense as the F-35 to replace the CF-18s. Also, the Turks and the Israelis still plan to continue. In fact, Israel might just become the first country to operate thee F-35 outside of the US, even though they are not a partner nation. The most worrisome news comes from Britain, the only Level I partner, because the longer the delivery of the first F-35 takes, the more time they will have to further procure the already available Eurofighter.

Once the Americans start using it, they will surely mount a very aggressive marketing campaign. This aircraft will provide LM with security well into this century, they can't let it go down the gutter.

 

[Jawad73]

But for Israel to get these birds isn't that easy. US is still very much in Iraq and it simply cannot annoy Arab states in Middle East. Even though, historically this balance has always been tilted in Israel's favour but clearly F35 will mark a big shift in balance of power in the whole middle east.
Therefore, despite media reports that Israel has requested US for priority delivery it might not happen.