"Meet the most fascinating part of the F-35:..." Topic

… The $400,000 USD helmet.

"The F-35 Lightning II is one of the most complicated weapons systems ever developed, a sleek and stealthy fighter jet years in the making that is often called a flying computer because of its more than 8 million lines of code. The Joint Strike Fighter comes in three versions, including one that is designed to take off and land on an aircraft carrier and another that lands vertically, as if it were a helicopter.

But to truly understand the most expensive weapons program in the history of the Pentagon, forget the plane for a minute. Consider the helmet.

It's designed to protect the pilot's head, of course. But compared to everything the helmet does, protection becomes something of an afterthought…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Ummm, I hate to mention it, but someone forgot their budget review duties when this "little" expense slipped though, because its 10X – 100X times the price it should be (my money's on the larger end of the overpriced spectrum).

Crash protection, HUD display, ruggedized electronics, most likely custom fit, small production lots. $400,000 USD is less than I would expect.

Is this the R&D cost to make one, or final production cost? These articles always fail to make this distinction.

As to cost, if it helps a pilot to dominate the enemy during combat, I think it is worth it. Cheaper than replacing a plane or pilot that gets shot down.

Koenigsegg has handmade, small production lots of carbon fiber wheels, all based on in-house R&D. They cost $42,000 USD for a set of 4, or about $10,000 USD each.

I could see these helmets similarly costing $10 USDk to fabricate the carbon and other crash-safety stuff. The HUD/electronics is MAYBE another $40,000 USD (two state-of-the-art night vision projectors @$10,000, $30,000 USD in amortized software R&D). So $50,000 USD a helmet. Even if you double that (because mil-industrial complex largesse) it's still only 25% of what LockMart /Rockwell Collins is billing. >_<

I detest this plane now that I found out the money spent on it could have paid for the manned mission to Mars.

I can't wait till it gets shot down by unmanned aircraft

Because yeah, that pilot that gets killed in the shoot-down clearly deserved death because he flies an F35 and personally killed your Mars Mission fantasy

that pilot that gets killed

I'm questioning why the plane has a human pilot in it.

What?! Have you invented artifical intelligence capable of replacing a fast jet pilot?!

Have you sold your idea yet? If not, I'd like to buy in!

So the Chinese hackers can't take control of it (hopefully), after it takes off.

Most interesting fact is the UK public will still be paying for this despite it's ridiculous overspend, we should back out now, only the Brits would tag along out of misguided loyalty and whispers of the "special" relationship, to something that appears to have an unlimited price tag. surely we should say end of deal, over budget and move on and leave the Americans to sort out the mess. It's a bottomless money pit, just as the Industry wants it to be.

With an election looming, I would love one party to have the gohonez to turn round and say it's not for us, there is better, more suitable kit out there at a fraction of the cost.

Ok rant over, cheers all

Johnny,

That's what the present government tried to do as soon as it came to power. However, the contracts were ruinously expensive to escape from. This is allied to the fact that the carrier design is specifically tied to STOVL operations and is ruinously expensive (again) to convert to cats & traps.

They also spent a ludictous amount of money in discovering these salient facts…

I'd also point out that the UK was right at the forefront of setting the design and operational specification for the thing, so it's hardly a case of us 'tagging along.

Thanks Jemima, thanks for the insights, sadly it seems again we are tied to a huge white Elephant, if only we had bought off the shelf, the opposition we are currently up agains don't even have effective air threats, let alone anything approaching the need or the F-35's alleged capiability. Likewise the current hesitation over the situation in the Crimea illustrates just how serious we would be in confronting any nation with a serious air threat. At the end of the day these are shiny toys for the toy box and it's a terrible waste of money.