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Why This Controversial Jet May Cost $1.7 Trillion | True Cost - YouTube
Channel: Business Insider
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the us military expects to spend 1.7
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trillion dollars on this revolutionary
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stealth warplane the f-35 lightning ii
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2021 marks 15 years since the first
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flight of this controversial plane but
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high costs may sink the plan to build
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nearly 2 000 more f-35s it still has
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some problems that need to be solved and
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fundamentally the cost of operating the
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airplane and flying the airplane today
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is too high every hour the f-35 is in
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the air runs around 35 000
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compared to about 22 000 for an older
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f-16
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so are the advancements of the plane
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worth the cost
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we went to hill air force base in utah
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to find out how this plane ended up as
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the biggest weapons program in american
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history
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this is captain spencer whitey callsign
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ghost he flies one of 78 f-35s stationed
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here the f-35 in general is just a game
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changer
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between the stealth and the fusion and
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just the sensors the whole suite it just
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makes it so much easier to fly this
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airplane tactically than any other jet
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there are nearly 500 f-35s in service in
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the us military and in the last few
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years the f-35 has carried out
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airstrikes against isis in iraq and
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syria probably the best compliment you
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can pay to this airplane is if i wanted
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to go to war this is the airplane i want
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to be in
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so by many measures the plane is a
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success
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you know the f-35 a lot of times has
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gotten a sort of a bad rap in the media
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there was bad press from the beginning
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but even in 2021 criticism followed the
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revelation that operating this fleet of
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planes could cost taxpayers 1.7 trillion
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dollars that's equivalent to the total
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amount of student debt in america just
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buying the planes costs 400 billion
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dollars but what are called sustainment
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costs really add up
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that includes developing testing flying
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and maintaining the american fleet of
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nearly 2 500 f-35s during a 66-year life
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cycle that ends in 2070.
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lockheed martin sent insider a statement
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that says there is clearly work to be
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done to lower sustainment costs and we
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are working tirelessly with our
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customers to accomplish this
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to truly understand the complex price
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tag we need to look at how it was born
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in 2001 the department of defense
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awarded lockheed martin the contract to
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design and build a new generation of
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fighter jet
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but part of the problem was the same
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thing that made it seem great in the
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first place the f-35 was supposed to fit
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the needs of the air force navy and
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marines all in one so the military
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actually had to build three different
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models the f-35a b and c
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they're really close cousins and they
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look a lot alike but the air force had
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its own requirements the navy needed a
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tail hook the marine core variant needed
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the jump jet so it was a mistake to sell
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the f-35 as one single aircraft it's
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really three
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aircraft rolled into one
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the marine corps wanted to replace
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harrier jets
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so it needed short takeoff abilities and
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vertical landings for amphibious
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carriers that's what became the f-35b
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model at a cost of 101 million dollars
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per plane
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the navy wanted a stealth jet that could
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take off and land on super carriers to
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replace the fa-18
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enter the 94 million dollar f-35 c model
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the air force was looking to replace the
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a-10 and the f-16 i have flown against
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f-16s in this airplane you can end up
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just showing up behind them and they
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never knew that you were on your way you
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were invisible you saw them from a long
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ways out they never saw you
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ghost flies the most conventional
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fighter bomber version the f-35a
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it's also the least expensive of the
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three at 78 million dollars
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the original plan was for all of the
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f-35s a b and c to be nearly identical
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but packing everything into just one
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kind of plane created all sorts of
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problems
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the first b model was meant to hover but
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it was significantly overweight because
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of all the functionality that designers
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packed into it
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so basically the lockheed martin had to
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redesign
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the f-35b
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and because all three airplanes were
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being developed together
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it also resulted in some redesign of the
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a model and the c model this was a major
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setback to the program and ended up
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costing the program a lot of time and an
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awful lot of money to redesign
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the navy's c model needed tougher
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landing gear and bigger wings so it
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could land on a traditional aircraft
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carrier
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retired lieutenant general chris bogdan
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took over the f-35 joint program office
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in 2012. the program had run into some
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significant cost and schedule overruns
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it was billions of dollars over budget
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and years behind schedule
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the original design shared about 75 in
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common between versions that was meant
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to cut costs but general bogdan says in
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the end the planes only share about a
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third of their design
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it was part of the mess bogdan inherited
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because back in 2006 the dod decided to
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enter production before testing showed
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acceptable performance we were going to
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take all these new technologies that
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were not very mature
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and we were going to integrate them in
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one big bang on the airplane and
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basically hope that it worked
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the problem there is if any one of those
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technologies is not mature or doesn't
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work it holds up the entire program
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by 2021 lockheed martin had delivered
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nearly 500 f-35s to the us military with
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plans for nearly 2 000 more
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[Music]
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lockheed had delivered more than 200
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f-35s to other governments around the
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world and orders for 600 more are in the
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works
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the f-35 is being mass produced and
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lockheed is expected to deliver more
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than 150 planes in 2022 but the pentagon
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has delayed a crucial milestone called
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full rate production that would
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officially mark the end of testing the
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f-35
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a decade and a half after its first
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flight the f-35 still has more than 600
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known problems mainly related to
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computer software and hardware
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so maintaining an f-35 turns out to be
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much more expensive than anyone expected
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the lifetime cost estimate for
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maintenance of the f-35 fleet increased
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15
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between 2018 and 2021 to a total of more
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than 400 billion dollars just like
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you get a new iphone every couple years
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we're going to get new computers in the
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jet with more capability
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and then new sensors and improved
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avionics in the aircraft
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the f-35 is a flying computer with eight
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million lines of code for the airplane
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itself and another 16 million lines of
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diagnostic tools that help figure out
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what's going wrong at any given time
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absolutely the biggest advantage for the
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f-35 is the fact that it's
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self-diagnosing right and if it doesn't
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tell us exactly what's wrong it gives us
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a general direction to go in which saves
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a lot of time on the back end when it
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comes to maintenance it takes a lot of
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the guesswork out of it
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and there are benefits inside the
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cockpit since pilots get more
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information than in any other fighter
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jet
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the helmet a 400 000 custom fit model
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combines the heads-up display of older
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planes with night vision as well as a
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feed from infrared cameras mounted on
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the body of the plane my awareness is
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projected to me in the visor of this
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helmet and it's so expensive because
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it's binocular it projects into both of
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my eyes so those have to be perfectly
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aligned so i'm not seeing double the
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stealth design absorbs radar waves and
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hides the massive heat signature put out
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by its supersonic engine
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i see everything that's happening out
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there and they don't see me because i'm
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stealth which then just allows me this
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position to just sit back and
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quarterback in kind of a calm
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environment
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as opposed to kind of the chaos that
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you're having to go through if you're in
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other jets where older fighters are seen
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on radar the f-35s are barely a blip
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of course the same can't be said for the
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cost and without better affordability
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the military will likely cut back on
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purchases the original plan and believe
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it or not the current plan is for the
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air force to buy 1763
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f-35as
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no one really believes that it's just
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sort of out there since the military
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buys planes in batches future production
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could stop at almost any time but most
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likely that's not the case most likely
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they'll get maybe 11 or 1200 in which
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case you have to keep a legacy force
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fourth generation fighters that work
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with you and depend upon you the f-35 as
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effectively the the the well the force
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that kicks down the door
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so two decades into the program with
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less than a third of the anticipated
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planes built that 1.7 trillion dollar
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number is just an educated guess
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[Applause]
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