FY2008 : la chasse au JSF est ouverte et les termites sont au boulot

On connaît désormais le grand cas qu’il faut faire du budget du Pentagone pour l’année 2008, et comment ce budget gargantuesque est en même temps un budget de famine. Il est intéressant de voir, dans ce contexte budgétaire si étonnant, ce qu’on dit en général de l’avenir de notre programme préféré, le JSF/F-35.

Rassurez-vous, la comédie n’est pas finie. Nous ne sommes pas au bout de notre chronique des aventures du JSF.

L’excellente et “authoritative” publication Jane’s Defence Weekly (en date du 14 février) consacre une partie de son analyse du FY2008 au JSF, sous le titre de «JSF is new target».

«However, the JSF programme emerged drastically poorer from the long-term budget planning process that produced the FY08 spending request.

»The air force, which is the JSF's largest customer and has a huge influence on average unit production cost for the entire programme, delivered the biggest blow to the aircraft. To save money after FY12, the air force has decided to truncate its annual purchases to a maximum of 48 per year. The original plan called for full-rate production of 48 aircraft in FY12, which would continue to ramp up to a maximum of 110 aircraft per year.

»Second, the navy has dramatically restructured its short-term order acquisition plans for JSF, reducing orders over the next four years by 58 aircraft. Instead, the navy wants to partly fill the gap by ordering an additional 19 F/A-18E/Fs, including a request for 12 Super Hornets in the FY08 supplemental.»

En présence d’un budget FY2008 jugé catastrophique pour elle, il n’est plus question que l’USAF dissimule ou minimise les difficultés de certains de ses programmes. D’où l’insistance des différents canaux officieux de communication de l’USAF à propos du cas du JSF/F-35A et des menaces qui pèsent sur le programme. On en trouve un exemple dans le digest quotidien de l’Air Force Association, dans son édition du 9 février sous la signature du rédacteur en chef de Air Force Magazine, John A. Tirpak.

«The Wrong Number: The Fiscal 2008 Air Force budget request forecasts a maximum of 48 F-35s to be bought well into the next decade. That’s “the wrong number,” Air Combat Command chief Gen. Ronald Keys told AFA Air Warfare Symposium attendees on Friday. The bare minimum buy would have to be at least 80 a year in order to avoid doing yet another massive service life extension program on USAF’s F-16s, Keys reported. The ideal number would be 110 per year to modernize the fighter force in a reasonable amount of time, he said. Fortunately, the “the train wreck doesn’t come inside the budget cycle,” meaning the current future years defense plan, so there’s time to try to get the numbers right, Keys said.

»Pest Control: The Air Force’s budget enemies have finished beating up on the F-22 now that the aircraft is in the field and working beautifully, and the buy has been truncated to 183 airplanes, says Gen. Ron Keys, head of Air Combat Command. So that means they’ve moved on to the F-35, hoping to delay it long enough so that the price goes up and becomes unaffordable, asserted Keys, adding, “There are always termites out there looking for something to feed on.”»

Mis en ligne le 12 février 2007 à 16H44