Japanese Stealth Fighter

[MasterBates]

Sikorsky in my experience has a lot of the "You only buy helos from us, so therefore you will take what we give you and LIKE IT" attitude in my experience. Telling us things were impossible to get in the 60B that were working (from the factory) in the spanish S70, which is essentially the same airframe.

Then again, we (the Navy) have done some really dumb shit, like not paying for a VOR/ILS in a new aircraft that's wired for it. Apparently the $20K (or less) box and antennas that are not weight critical in a Cessna are too much for the mighty 60R

 

[phrogdriver]

I don't know why any of those things would remotely come close to "impossible," then. None of them are exactly warp drive, total omniscience, or anything like that.

 

[FlyinSpy]

This was part of a discussion where they were asking for a wish list of things we would like to see on future 60 models. ie If we could have anything in the world, what would it be. So I don't think it was under the terms of any given contract.

I wonder if Sikorsky ever bothered to ask these guys:

From the "I didn't know that..." Department - China has been flying Blackhawks for 20 + years. According to the fanboy/trainspotter set, they aren't holding up well (http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/archive/index.php?t-51018.html), but they were in action during the big earthquake recovery last year. Go figure...

 

[Junkball]

This article pretty much covers it all. Japan is paying 3x what they would have paid for F-16 and are hampered by lack of growth capacity. But they did stimulate their own industrial base, which was one of their objectives.

talking about SH-60K openly

Did you mean to include another link besides the -60?

 

[HeyJoe]

Did you mean to include another link besides the -60?

Why yes I did. Good catch. Here it is.

 

[bert]

This was part of a discussion where they were asking for a wish list of things we would like to see on future 60 models. ie If we could have anything in the world, what would it be. So I don't think it was under the terms of any given contract.

I assume this was during OAG inputs? Sad to say, but I suspect a lot of SAC saying something is "impossible" stems from the fact that they have been in bed with -299 for long enough to know when something has no chance in hell of being funded.

And not to be cynical, but I have often thought that in some communities the leadership walks into the OAG process with their "needs" and desires already cooked up with the PMA and the prime contractor regardless of input from the fleet.