Saturday, March 31, 2012

Talking points

New cost figures for F-35 are over-budget again; Lockmart's press release is not entirely convincing.

"For example, media reporting on the 2010 SAR estimate included only operations and support costs, while recent reports on the 2011 SAR estimate add the cost of acquisition and development which the U.S. government currently estimates at $396B. This results in the appearance of cost growth year over year."

Development being constantly being over-schedule and over-budget obviously does not contribute to the appearance of cost growth.

"The government also included the cost of lifetime modernization to the aircraft to improve its capabilities — expenses that are not included in the cost projections for other aircraft."

...because other aircraft come with their baseline features out of the box, none of this spiral development nonsense.

"Lockheed Martin remains confident that F-35 operations and support costs will be comparable to or lower than that of the seven legacy platforms that it will replace."

Lies.

"The F-35 also provides our Armed Forces and allies with the unprecedented 5th Generation fighter performance capabilities of radar-evading stealth..."

F-35 stealth is not all-aspect, not VLO.

"..supersonic speed..."

No supercruise.

"..agility..."

Flight envelope is comparable to an F/A-18, i.e. the bomb-truck from 1980.

"..and the most comprehensive integrated sensor package of any fighter aircraft."

This is a massive coding project and most of it hasn't been done yet, expect more bugs, more overruns, more delays.

"The F-35 will achieve cost advantages over the platforms it will replace by leveraging economies of scale – gained through deployment by the three U.S. service branches and international partnerships – and a common logistics, maintenance, training and supply chain infrastructure."

You can streamline the logistics, but that's null if you require more maintenance and more expensive parts in the first place.

"The F-35 will also achieve lower or comparable operation and support costs than legacy systems while providing greater capabilities."

Lies.

Friday, March 30, 2012

Canon

Sheryl Nome drives a Ferrari California:


Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Math

Indonesia is considering a purchase of 100 Leopard tanks from the Netherlands (source: The Economist).

Wait what?

They only have 82 tanks left.

On this note, it would appear that we are now finally more heavily armed than the Dutch.

We did it by buying the stuff out of those struggling Euros.

I hear those defense cuts are a pain.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

I think

If were to start watching sports, I think I'd pick up football or basketball.

The main barrier is that I have to pay attention to little tiny numbers on jerseys or I won't know what's going on. Alternatively memorize starting lineups..but that seems like more work..

Also that everything changes season to season so I have to commit to following or else I won't know what's going on.

My interest in hockey is actually close to nil.

I am not Canadian..

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

I'm going to just post these PVs here because I think they're pretty cool





Bonus:


Holy batman $200 million!

F-35 costs based on LRIP 5 contracts:

F-35A: $172 million per aircraft;
F-35B: $291.7 million per aircraft;
F-35C: $235.8 million per aircraft

To be fair, these costs will probably come down in real dollars when they ramp up the production volume.

On the other hand, it will never go down to a reasonable number, which I am willing to accept $100M flyaway as at this point.

There are also a lot of miscellaneous of logistics costs involved with adapting it over something like a Rhino that aren't covered here. E.g. overhauling our entire tanker fleet.

Recently Canada has commented that it reserves the right to cancel orders based on cost.

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Google, updated

Arts & Entertainment
Arts & Entertainment - Comics & Animation - Anime & Manga
Arts & Entertainment - Movies
Arts & Entertainment - Music & Audio
Arts & Entertainment - Music & Audio - Music Streams & Downloads
Arts & Entertainment - Music & Audio - Urban & Hip-Hop
Arts & Entertainment - TV & Video - Online Video
Autos & Vehicles - Vehicle Brands - Porsche
Business & Industrial
Games - Computer & Video Games
Shopping
World Localities - Asia - South Asia - Afghanistan
Demographics - Age - 25-34
Demographics - Gender - Male

I am now aged 25-34 and my interests have narrowed to Porsche.

Movin' up the food chain?