Will roper, the very influential person in charge of the acquisition programs of the US Air Force, has never hidden his reservations concerning the F35 program, which he considers both too complex, too versatile, threatening American industrial balances in this area and above all too expensive. While his position is potentially threatened by the imminent arrival of the Biden administration, he is making more announcements, both to present himself as an apolitical asset in the competition between the United States and China, and to highlight its Next Generation Air Dominance program, or NGAD, and the concept of Digital Century Series, in many ways the anti-thesis of the F35 program.
And the announcements made in recent days by Will Roper have the merit of clearly pose the issue concerning the F35 program. According to him, it would be illusory to hope that the costs of owning Lockheed-Martin's device would even drop beyond the thresholds already reached. However, at this cost level, the US Air Force will not be able to acquire all of the 1763 F35As initially planned to replace the F16s, the A10s and part of the F15s of the US Air Force. Because if the latter can indeed, within the current framework of the planned increase in its annual budget, acquire the devices in the 15 to 20 years to come, it will not be able to implement them, as much the maintenance and the costs of use its exorbitant.
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