Lockheed Martin improves F-35 bid for Korean F-X III, blasts KFX program as waste of money

Email Me When A New Comment Is Made
Show Only Poster Name and Title Newest to Oldest

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 NEXT

gf0012-aust 10/21/2009 3:17:56 PM

again, I pointed out 2 months ago via a Korean correspondent in DN that KFX was flagged as being delayed and/or rescoped as it was poor value for money (VFM being a baseline criteria in procuremen)

its also unable to carry yakhont class weapons.

btw neither can the F-22

Quote Reply

SlowMan 10/21/2009 3:35:38 PM

@ gf0012-aust

> I pointed out 2 months ago via a Korean correspondent in DN that KFX was flagged as being delayed

Korean congress's defense sub-committee blasted DoD for the KFX program delays and they urged DoD to move it forward now during its annual review like a week ago.

So we have a weird case of congress actually urging the acceleration of project and DoD trying to delay the project to raise fund for the president's pet project, the infamous $24 billion 1,000 km long Grand Canal to be dug out in just 3 years before he lives office.

> and/or rescoped as it was poor value for money (VFM being a baseline criteria in procuremen)

F-35's even poor value for money.

1. Expensive maintenance required at LM's Japanese shop.
2. What do you do now with useless F-35 in the event of Grand Naval Showdown.
3. Unable to carry Yakhont-class missile and GBU-28 bunker buster.

> its also unable to carry yakhont class weapons.

Super Hornet cannot carry the Yakhont class anti-ship missile in the centerline hardpoint?

Quote Reply

warpig 10/21/2009 3:38:42 PM

Who says the Koreans are getting GBU-28s? The only foreign sale of GBU-28s that I can remember hearing of was 100 of them to Israel a few years ago. South Korea would be only the second foreign sale of them.

Quote Reply

gf0012-aust 10/21/2009 3:44:11 PM

The RKAF regards KFX as a F-16 class asset.

The RKAF (and this is the same AF general on the assessment team who selected the F-15) that it will not meet deployment time due to timelines.

WTF would you know about VFM when the assessment criteria for JSF is in the order of 50,000 lines and NONE of it is in the public domian - and NONE of it has ever been released or leaked by ANY one from the consortium or the vendors.

you don't understand the basics and you're crapping to all and sdundry (again)

grow up

Quote Reply

SlowMan 10/21/2009 3:45:27 PM

@ warpig

> Who says the Koreans are getting GBU-28s

< link >

Quote Reply

SlowMan 10/21/2009 3:53:43 PM

@ gf0012-aust

> The RKAF regards KFX as a F-16 class asset.

Yes, "Low" of High-Low mix. The same people whose idea of F-16 class was really F/A-18.

> it will not meet deployment time due to timelines.

Hence the pressure from the congress to not delay any more.

> WTF would you know about VFM when the assessment criteria for JSF is in the order of 50,000 lines and NONE of it is in the public domian

F-X III assessment criteria is not JSF assessment criteria. I am talking about F-X III assessment criteria, not JSF assessment criteria.

I learned about this Yakhont class missile carriage requirement just recently and this was partly the reason why the minimum thrust was set at 50,000 lbs. F-35 cannot carry something like a Yakhont class missile.

Quote Reply

warpig 10/21/2009 4:39:28 PM

@ warpig

> Who says the Koreans are getting GBU-28s

<link... >

Well, that's a nice wish. I hope it comes true some day.

Quote Reply

SlowMan 10/21/2009 4:46:17 PM

@ warpig

> Well, that's a nice wish. I hope it comes true some day.

Already reported by AFP. < link >

Quote Reply

sentinel28a 10/21/2009 7:27:43 PM

As much as it pains me to agree with SlowMan, he's right--the GBU-28 has been in the ROKAF inventory for awhile now. If anybody needs a bunker-buster, it's South Korea.

My question is--why the hell do you want a monster like the Yakhont when a Harpoon or two will do the same job? In a "Grand Naval Showdown" scenario, Japan's not going to have the farking Yamato out there. Their largest surface combatant are the Hyuga-class and their successors, which still won't be much bigger that British Harrier-carriers. If the Japanese are stupid enough to risk them in the Tsushima Strait, where land-based air can easily get to them, then they're going to learn the same lesson they taught the British back in December 1941. The only thing Korea would be facing would be Aegis-class destroyers--and if I'm the ROKAF, I want something that can fire four Harpoons at a naval group, not one Yakhont. A ton of Harpoons could saturate the Aegis enough that some will get through. The Yakhont/Brahmos only makes sense if you're going after big ships like carriers.

Of course, this is a bit of a moot point, since the only place the Grand Naval Showdown exists is in ultra right-wing Korean fantasies.

Quote Reply

SlowMan 10/21/2009 10:38:59 PM

@ sentinel28a

> why the hell do you want a monster like the Yakhont when a Harpoon or two will do the same job?

The target for Yakhont is an Aegis destroyer. Plus Japanese have their own supersonic antiship missile under testing at the moment.

> In a "Grand Naval Showdown" scenario, Japan's not going to have the farking Yamato out there.

No, but a surface fleet of roughly 40 destroyers. Under the worst case scenario of three escort fleets + backup coastal units, there would be 6 Aegis destroyers and 6 16DDGs, which also have advanced radars. This is a very hard opponent to crack.

Korean Navy announced plans to construct 6 more SPY-1F equipped Aegis destroyers to bring up their Aegis strength to 9, plus 9 more normal DDGs(SM-2 equipped and data linked to Aegis system, but do not carry Aegis radar themselves) for a total of 18 "front line" heavy destroyers. In addition, their FFX frigates will be equipped with 16 antiship missiles each to form the secondline, their job is to launch Yakhont from the "second line", away from the range of JMSDF antiship missiles.

Under the original Grand Naval Showdown scenario, the antiship missile count was around 600. Under the revised Grand Naval Showdown scenario, the count has been raised to 1,000, a mix of simultanous high(Yakhont) and low(SSM-700K) attacks to saturate and crack JMSDF air defense.

The reason Korean Navy is adding 6 more Aegis destroyers is simple; they also expect JMSDF to launch high(SSM-3/ASM-3) and low(SSM-2/ASM-2) attacks.

> If the Japanese are stupid enough to risk them in the Tsushima Strait

The expected battleground is around Liancourt Rocks.

> A ton of Harpoons could saturate the Aegis enough that some will get through.

Well, combined JMSDF fleet would have 12 Aegis and Aegis-like destroyers.

> Of course, this is a bit of a moot point, since the only place the Grand Naval Showdown exists is in ultra right-wing Korean fantasies.

I too was very surprised to learn of this revised Grand Naval Showdown battle plan, that involves additional antiship missiles launched from FFX to raise the antiship missile count. Now we are talking about a battle scenario where close to 2,000 antiship missiles flying from both side. A true Grand Naval Showdown indeed.

Quote Reply

1 2 3 4 5 NEXT