Things are tough all over for new aircraft technologies. http://www.defensenews.com/articles/steep-price-rise-hits-indo-russian-5th-gen-fighter-project NEW DELHI — Just when its production was about to take off, the Indo-Russian fifth-generation fighter aircraft appears to be "lost" because Russians are demanding an "unaffordable price for the aircraft," according to a senior Indian Air Force official.
True, but corruption in defense industries is also endemic, especially our own, but nobody thinks this is bad for our national defense and makes any serious effort to clean it up, despite the fact we can double what the country's military gets for the same budgets. Most of this technology is not 'new', the basic research done on the vast bulk of it was done back in the 1940's and 1950's. Materials science, and especially vacuum science, were the key roadblocks, and their progress and associated cost reductions are interrelated, re electronics and machining.
