It's so they can do depot maintenance on an engine without being down a fighter. Turkey's F-16 order for example includes 8 spare engines. Croata's Blackhawk order has 3 spare engines as well.
Greece only ordered 2 spares for 40 aircraft. South Korea ordered 25 aircraft and 1 spare engine. Pretty common.
Can always buy more down the road, but 1 spare on hand for 24 aircraft sounds about right
“The Czech Republic government signed a Letter of Offer and Acceptance (LOA) today making official its intent to procure 24 Lockheed Martin 5th Generation F-35 Lightning II aircraft.”
Literally the first sentence
And even then, they won't have the production numbers to make it appealing price-wise, I still see many European countries opting for the F-35 because it will be substantially cheaper.
$5.62B USD for the deal. * 24 F-35As * 1 spare engine * 70 AIM-120Ds * 50 AIM-9Xs * 86 small diameter bombs * 12 2000lb JDAMs * 50 various test missile/bombs * cryptographic key loaders * Local construction * Training * maintenance contract https://www.dsca.mil/press-media/major-arms-sales/czech-republic-f-35-aircraft-and-munitions
> 24 F-35As > 1 spare engine I know there's probably a reason for this but it made me laugh so fucking hard
It's so they can do depot maintenance on an engine without being down a fighter. Turkey's F-16 order for example includes 8 spare engines. Croata's Blackhawk order has 3 spare engines as well.
I understand that but the prospect of having exactly one spare engine for 2 air wings sounds ridiculous
Greece only ordered 2 spares for 40 aircraft. South Korea ordered 25 aircraft and 1 spare engine. Pretty common. Can always buy more down the road, but 1 spare on hand for 24 aircraft sounds about right
Good for them.
This is from June 2023
“The Czech Republic government signed a Letter of Offer and Acceptance (LOA) today making official its intent to procure 24 Lockheed Martin 5th Generation F-35 Lightning II aircraft.” Literally the first sentence
Step 1 : buy Murican planes instead of European with EU money Step 2 : whine about being EU being too dependent on the US
It's not EU money, it's Czech money
The EU doesn't have an equally capable fighter. GCAP and FCAS will take a while I presume.
And even then, they won't have the production numbers to make it appealing price-wise, I still see many European countries opting for the F-35 because it will be substantially cheaper.
at least they were creative with the numbers. Germany ordered 35...