F-35 News

[Sir Slash]

Great posts Trailrunner and McGuire. I wonder how much, if any, more competition for contracts from different aircraft manufactures would help? Or are there any other manufactures to compete?

[trailrunner]

Great posts Trailrunner and McGuire. I wonder how much, if any, more competition for contracts from different aircraft manufactures would help? Or are there any other manufactures to compete?

There was ample competition, but there aren't too many primes that can pull off a project this large and sophisticated.  Boeing and Lockheed were in the final downselect in the JSF competition in the early 2000s.  I remember being at Edwards AFB and seeing the prototypes in February 2000 or 2001.  Besides Boeing and Lockheed, Northrup is probably the only other prime that would have been a legitimate contender, and they have become a bit of a bomber company. 

[bayonetbrant]

part of the reason that there are so few companies to compete on contracts like this is b/c of all the consolidation in the industry.

Look up how many companies made aircraft for the US military in WW2 and then look at what happened to all those companies - mergers & acquisitions have killed a bunch of them to where there's very few left that can compete for these kinds of contracts.

Same thing w/ armored vehicles, ships, and more

[Sir Slash]

That's too bad. Thanks for the reply.