The Allies of the United States are unlikely to buy an export version of F-47: ex Air Force Secretary

President Donald Trump said he would offer us an allies a less capable export version of a next sixth generation fighter, but a former Air Force official said they will want it.

Former Air Force Secretary, Frank Kendall, said in an interview with the Podcast that he doubted American allies to be willing to buy the next F-47 fighter because of the expected cost and high concerns about his long-standing alliances.

Speaking on the Podcast Air Power of Defense & Aerospace Report at the end of last week, Kendall, who left office in January, said that the jet price, which, according to the former secretary of the Air Force, could cost up to $ 180 million each, about twice as the F-35, could repel the American allies.

“I would be very surprised if our, one of our partners, was ready to pay for this unit cost for a new plane,” he said.

President Donald Trump announced this month that Boeing had been selected to build the new F-47, winning the $ 20 billion contract on Rival Lockheed Martin. Boeing’s share price increased after the announcement, adding $ 4 billion of market value.

The fighter of the air dominance of Next Generation F-47 (NGAD) should be ready for the fight by the end of the decade.

The objective is to develop a new sixth generation fighter plane with unrivaled furtive and air combat capacities, including the ability to fly with unrealized loyal wing drones, to give the American Air Force a technological advantage to overcome new threats.

The United States has piloted the Plan X-Plane prototypes in pursuit of this effort.

It is about to replace the F-22 Raptor, a fifth generation air / air superiority fighter who has been in service since 2005. The United States, despite the pressure, have never exported the F-22, which was built by Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

The other fifth generation American fighter is the fighter Joint Strike Lockheed F-35 Lightning II, which was developed as part of a multinational program. Many allies are now flying the jet.

Kendall said that the Trump administration’s attitude towards longtime allies like Canada and dozens of countries in Europe could lead some to questioning the wisdom of investing more in very expensive American weapons systems such as the next F-47.

“Another factor at the moment, of course, is that the attitude we have adopted towards our allies is to lead many of them to rethink their degree of cooperation and commitment and dependence on American sources of equipment,” he said.

Kendall also underlined Trump’s assertion that the F-47 export version sold to American allies could have downgraded capacities, reasoning being that allies today may not be allies in the future.

“We essentially have very close allies, and we share with them some of the best capacities because we have a lot of confidence,” said Kendall. “This administration does not seem to take this point of view.”

The F-47 is designed to fly alongside autonomous drones, called collaborative combat aircraft. But Kendall said there were questions about how these drones will work with future crew fighters.

“There is no preparation at this stage, confidence on the plane not linked to bet entirely on them, right? And I tend to share this point of view,” he said.

Drone technology is deployed through the American army, but autonomous drone technology is still in a strongly experimental phase.

Despite this, Kendall said there was an urgent need for the United States to modernize its Air Force, where the average plane is about 30 years old.

The planned upgrades occur while competitors like China seem to invest in the development of new stealth fighters.