Wednesday, July 24, 2013

A note about my stance on the F-35.


Sferrin was kind enough to point to MANY articles that I've written in support of the F-35 and basically calls me a flip-flopper because I'm calling for a delay to the Marine Corps purchase.

He's right.

I've been one of staunchest supporters of the F-35 program.

But times have changed and events crystallized when the Marine Corps had to kill the very promising Marine Personnel Carrier program in order to help keep funding flowing for the F-35.  That was when I realized that people that I had criticized vehemently were right...about the costs portion of the airplane anyway.

We can't afford it.

Moral courage demands that when information changes, or rather when it becomes obvious that the information that you received is no longer valid, that its time to rethink your planning.  That's all I'm doing with the F-35.

Cowards or fools continue the course when information informs them that the path they're on is leading to at best trouble and at worst disaster.  This applies doubly to defense projects.

So yeah.  My position has changed.  The information has changed.  Therefore the procurement plan must change.