The Big Business Of Fighter Jets

fighter jets remain the cornerstone of security for most countries they're fast they're dangerous and they cost a huge pile of money they're expensive to design build and field and much like budgeting for buying a car some countries can only afford entry-level sedans while some like the us have a garage full of sports cars fighters are really expensive both to buy and then to operate the market for american fighter jets is much much bigger than headlines about the f-35 lightning ii the bleeding edge stealth fighter from lockheed martin there are private companies buying aging fighters that have been upgraded and other countries are lining up for the latest model of f-15 you know we've fought with uae four times four different wars they've been very very loyal to us and we have a better relationship with them now than we ever had in the past unmanned aerial combat vehicles continue to advance as endeavors like the air force's skyboard program attempt to prove that ai could make the human fighter pilot obsolete their teaming system and unmanned capability how that integrates in with fighter platforms that we've traditionally produced all those things are sort of on the table the the fighter jet era has passed the future of unmanned warplanes is just around the corner but for now selling american fighter jets around the world remains a big business here's why the u.s defense industry wasn't spared from the economic crunch caused by the coronavirus outbreak so from from a sales perspective we're yet to see any major slowdown but it's very possible as countries uh deal with grappling you know with the pandemic and the pandemic response that just defense overall to include fighter jets will actually be hit as well i think even when there's a global pandemic most countries still put national security as a very high priority so they're going to want to use the funding that they have available to buy things like fighter jets that they see is very important to their nation's security and i think very near term there'll be a focus on not just the platform that's brought forward but the industrial offering that comes with it and and what does that mean for our country's economy and what does that mean in terms of the number of jobs that a given company is able to bring forward only earlier this week the french dasso company announced that it had sold 14 rafale aircraft to greece that is counter to what you would think from a a global pandemic and demonstrates that all countries are interested in defending themselves and the fault lines within those countries and and in groupings that certainly have come to the fore as a result of the pandemic so people are thinking perhaps more strongly about defense uh than than they were before some lawmakers did push for domestic fighter jet purchases as part of the cares act and some nations like india were delivered french rafale fighter jets that had been ordered prior to the pandemic american manufacturers boeing and lockheed martin have continued to compete for sales of their fighters in numerous countries to complement domestic orders from the u.s government five or so years ago it was very much being called into question just what the future of you know the america american fighter jet manufacturing would look like one big reason why the united arab emirates signed a historic agreement to normalize relations with israel it opened up the country to weapon sales from the united states countries like the uae want stealth aircraft but a fleet of cutting edge fighter jets also needs cutting edge maintenance and repair programs which could be too expensive for some nations there's been a resurgence of fourth 4.5 gen fighters largely because you've seen such an evolution in electronics according to the 2020 national defense authorization act the us is planning on buying more than 144 f-15 ex fighters in the coming years that could cost around 23 billion other nations such as finland india and saudi arabia have plans to buy new fighters to replace aging fleets some countries buy new high-end fighters like the f-35 lightning 2 or variants of the f-15 eagle or they'll purchase russian aircraft like the su-30 flanker others buy used fighters which are older and have seen more use but are usually much cheaper government regulations can stem possible sales and politics plays a role too when you buy a fighter jet um you're actually kind of buying a relationship with the country that is selling it to you especially when you buy it with you buy it from a country like the united states you are solidifying your relationship um your national security relationship with that country technology plays a big factor advanced fighters like the f-35 are not available to export to numerous countries because of technology transfer concerns other countries such as russia have exported fighters only to see them reverse engineered by their customer it's just not very clear what role fighters actually have in a future battle if it's an engagement with china there's going to be a really fundamental rethinking about what a fighter actually is at some point that will bleed into the export market decades ago the us had several companies producing and selling fighter jets among them convair produced the f-102 delta dagger vault produced the f8 crusader and grumman produced the iconic f-14 tomcat today there are two major producers boeing and lockheed martin both companies work with other aerospace firms to produce their fighters but since the cold war ended there has not been a field of players in the fighter jet arena but despite only having two companies manufacturing fighters the us is a major seller for high-end fighter jets that are in operation around the world both due to u.s air force and u.s navy investments and international investments there are still two major producers of american fighter jets boeing and lockheed lockheed martin one of the selling points for the f-35 was the upfront commitment by multiple buyers and military branches in the u.s to procure the advanced jet it was sort of envisioned from the very outset as a fighter jet that could be exported to the us allies and partner nations so even from the time it was being developed in like the very early stages you had countries like the uk like um the netherlands who were paying into the development of the f-35 and basically saying hey like we're going to buy this we want to be a part of this program we're signing up as early customers with more buyers the average cost of development went down as opposed to if each country or in the case of the us each military branch independently procured a fifth generation stealth fighter although the f-35 has had its share of development issues it has been a successful seller for the consortium led by lockheed martin that produces the aircraft more than 500 f-35s have been delivered to customers around the world and many more are on order with more nations showing interest in the versatile lightning too the us always has you know promised israel a qualitative military edge and they are the launch customer if you will in in the middle east with the f-35 what we're seeing now though is we're seeing peace deals with uae we're seeing now bahrain uh striking a peace deal with israel so now the question becomes how will the f-35 be sold throughout throughout the middle east older fighters are still aiming for new sails the eurofighter typhoon first flew in 1994 and with recent upgrades it could be flying for decades to come the eurofighter is uh now extremely capable it's been around for you know 20 years now so since since the first models and while it came into service as an air defense aircraft it has morphed into much more of a multi-role type of aircraft really as a result of operations in iraq afghanistan and in in syria more recently so it has been is being used in a number of um roles and reconnaissance that matters technical reconnaissance and that were perhaps away from its original tasking so it is very hardly thought of it's very well liked by its crew one lower budget option at around 60 million per copy is the swedish sab gripen the gripen is also designed for rugged use making it ideal for countries with smaller defense budgets and another popular fighter jet is the rafael a french fighter jet that costs around 70 million per plane buying the fighter jet is only half the equation a country needs trained pilots to fly and to fight them [Music] fighter jets aren't just for militaries companies with deep pockets and ambitions are buying fighter jets and offering to fly them as training opponents for militaries around the world for example the airborne tactical advantage company owned by textron and air usa are two companies in the us that provide what is known as adversary support to the us military mostly uh we're seeing them flying older european type fighters as opposed to say an f-16 although a lot of them have aspirations to fly more modern planes like f-16s that hasn't exactly happened yet defense industry reporters at the war zone unearthed a possible sale of 46 australian fighters to air usa and in 2017 atac bought 63 used mirage f1s from france to upgrade and use as advanced supersonic adversaries and training atec isn't just a company it's a hand-picked cadre of former weapon school graduates and instructor pilots who connect with our military air crew on every level these companies provide services to the us that help fill in gaps in training capability that the u.s can't fulfill otherwise sometimes private citizens can buy their own demilitarized fighter jets for personal use but it tends to be a hobby reserved for billionaires and millionaires with pilot licenses the u.s air force for a number of years has had a pilot shortage and it's been unable to you know just train enough pilots keep enough actually pilots in uniform and prevent them from going to say work for the airlines which you know had been hiring like hotcakes up until you know the coronavirus pandemic so the business case has been you know we're losing the air force is losing pilots so it needs to find new newer ways to train pilots one of the ways they've come up with is using private contractors to fly who who own and fly uh you know secondhand jets although the bulk of fighter jet purchases come from nation states the emerging adversary market proves that fighters can also be used to make a profit in a different domain it's a big business the the air force it's you know it's a hundreds of millions of dollar business because you know pilots need to be trained uh in air-to-air combat and also troops on the ground need to be trained and these folks uh flying these you know private private air forces if you will can fly around and do things like you know uh you know relay coordinates for targets and such like that and do simulated strikes for uh for these uh soldiers who are on the ground perhaps practicing calling calling in those strikes [Music] just like in any other industry in which it gets introduced artificial intelligence is poised to cause big disruptions in the aerospace world replacing some human piloted fighters with unmanned or optionally manned fighters could be a game changer developing unmanned combat aerial vehicles could also bring other aerospace companies like northrop grumman to the table for developing unmanned combat aerial vehicles i think the concept particularly with manned and unmanned teaming being a major issue now is the fact that um uh that that balance of how many and what capability a manned aircraft needs uh when it has lots of loyal wingmen around helping it um perhaps do the dirty work and the boring work is is is an issue in earlier decades aerodynamic design ruled the drawing board today computers and composite materials are changing the calculus of the game the f-35 for example has more than eight million lines of code that allowed to operate as a multi-sensor platform to quarterback any potential fight by seeing computing and reacting quickly to combat situations you know for a lot of these countries that are up and coming that want to strengthen their defense industrial base and start becoming you know countries that can make their own fighters it's a real uphill climb and when you talk about you know becoming a country that can actually build a stealth aircraft it becomes even harder and the political role in fighter exports continues to be a prominent factor in sales it takes a lot of trust to sell a fighter to another country you know that country is going to be spending a lot of money to buy those fighters and they have to trust that you're going to be there uh to maintain those aircraft and that when they really need them in a in a situation of conflict or war with another country um that you'll have their back um maybe you know potentially actively but sometimes even just indirectly by providing the support and the spares and the technical assistance they need to keep their aircraft in the air during that situation russia and china are also hoping that they can continue to sell upgraded older fourth generation fighters and possibly stealth fighters in the near future the thing that russia and china china are able to do that traditionally is not done with u.s sales is they'll be able to sell their planes for a lot cheaper and that's because when the u.s sells an aircraft it doesn't just sell the plane it's selling all the training it's selling spare parts and such older proven fighters continue to sell and despite the unknowns about the place of the fighter jet in future wars it remains a pivotal security element of national sovereignty certainly our f-15 is popular and well-known our super hornet as well i mean even the t7 that we've recently introduced and down the line could fulfill a light fighter light attack role so we really do have a portfolio of products and solutions that we bring forward guess what f-15 is still selling and the f-16 is still selling you know we're like 35-40 years on from from the original aircraft and you know they're really pretty aircraft they they are fantastic so so uh but but the evolution partly as i said before because of miniaturization of technologies has allowed these relatively sort of aging aircraft to be packed with goodies and again that that is a very attractive proposition for for a number of countries

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Id: WTK_2mSW7Z8

Length: 15min 25sec (925 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 27 2020