via Lockheed Martin press release.
LONDON, United Kingdom, Sept. 12, 2013 – Thirteen British companies and the U.K. Minister of Defence Equipment, Support and Technology participated in a Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] Industry Recognition Event during the DSEI tradeshow today. Over the next 40 years, British industry will continue to play a vital role in the F-35’s global production, follow-on development and sustainment, bringing strong economic benefits to the kingdom.Read the whole thing here.
“The F-35 is the largest defence programme in the world,” said U.K. Minister of Defence Equipment, Support and Technology Philip Dunne. “The U.K.’s involvement will generate billions of pounds and tens of thousands of jobs for the British economy for decades to come, with over 500 suppliers across the U.K. already contributing to the production of the F-35. Backed by this government's strategic vision for U.K. aerospace, the F-35 programme allows us to continue to build on the strengths of our nations avionics, systems and sensors industry.”
Steve O’Bryan, vice president, F-35 Business Development, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics added, “Our suppliers here in the U.K. are essential to the success of this program. Together, they will produce 15 percent of each one of the more than 3,100 F-35s planned for the global fleet. We are leveraging their proud legacy of innovation in aerospace to deliver this unprecedented capability to the warfighter.”
My considered analysis of the claims being made?
Bullshit.
We're seeing a monetary scheme that rivals the fraud seen on Wall Street. Money is flowing from the US government to Lockheed Martin. That money is then spread around the world to different sub contractors in strategic countries...countries that are either part of the program or those that tey want to join. Next, Lockheed Martin charges the US govt and its allies crazy prices for the airplane and when those govts balk at the price, Lockheed Martin can claim all the jobs that are provided by this project.
Its diabolical. Its fraudulent. It shouldn't have been allowed. And it won't work in the end.
The writing is on the wall. Sequestration will continue and the F-35 will die (Who's gonna save it? Government deficit reducing Republicans or social spending Democrats? The budget hawks rule the roost and the F-35 is the biggest pigeon flying).
Nuff said.
Defense spending is always a jobs negative unless you can turn a profit from exports. This would be a bonus to GB if:
ReplyDelete-The LM buys more from the Brits than the Brits spend.
-The technology transfers aid Britain in developing other profit making enterprises. i.e. BAE is able to build a better something and sell it at a higher profit thanks to what LM taught them.
Otherwise Defense is ALWAYS a net jobs killer. There are plenty of reasons to have a military, employing people is not one of them.
This is just the "broken windown fallacy" or the seen vs. the unseen all over again. The US would be better off economically if the 800 billion expected to be spent on the F-35 over the next 3 decades was never spent by the national government.
When Soviet Union was alive and kicking, defense oriented science and industry was driving entire west world economy, pushing technology and science to the limits in every field.
ReplyDeleteThe problem was to have scientific, technologic and raw resources to accomplish the project -- if you had all necessary resources to accomplish the goal, money simply was not a problem at all. Now F-35 program have all necessary technological, scientific and raw resourses to be completed. But purely virtual "financial" powers imposed "sequestration" that just killing science and industry, if defense industry and science will be killed, civilian counterparts will follow.
For example we have internet right now only because of defense spending -- ARPA agency was created in response to USSR launched first satellite. One of the ARPA(currenty DARPA) projects was ARPAnet which evolved into internet, without it such blogs simply wasnt existed, without ARPA right now "internet" development would be still on 1980 levels.