via Bloomberg
A couple of things. The original plan was for the different services to have different designs to accomplish the unique missions each have. CONGRESS forced the programs to unite. CONGRESS!
Then the next thing that has dawned on me is that the ground is being laid for a massive fight over the F-35. The supporters and the critics are lining up and the fight will be over the cost of the airplane.
Supporters will lock onto an estimated full rate production cost and critics (myself included) will point to how much money has already been spent.
This is gonna get good. One last point. Don't assume that Republicans will support this program. McCain and his allies are having a tough time getting money for defense and when you add troop cuts onto all this and you're going to have a full scale revolt of the tea party members (don't buy the press about the tea party...their main focus is on smaller government).
Lockheed Martin Corp.’s (LMT) F-35 jet fighter, designed by the Pentagon to serve the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, is likely to end up costing more than it would to build separate planes for each service, a Rand Corp. study has found.Read the entire article here.
“Under none of the plausible conditions we analyzed did” the F-35 “have a lower life-cycle cost estimate,” Rand, a nonprofit research institution, said in the report released this week on the plane known as the Joint Strike Fighter.
The report questions a fundamental tenet of the Pentagon’s costliest weapons program -- that building different versions on a common base will reduce costs. Rand analyzed an estimated $1.5 trillion “life-cycle cost” that includes acquisition plus long-term support of the fleet.
A couple of things. The original plan was for the different services to have different designs to accomplish the unique missions each have. CONGRESS forced the programs to unite. CONGRESS!
Then the next thing that has dawned on me is that the ground is being laid for a massive fight over the F-35. The supporters and the critics are lining up and the fight will be over the cost of the airplane.
Supporters will lock onto an estimated full rate production cost and critics (myself included) will point to how much money has already been spent.
This is gonna get good. One last point. Don't assume that Republicans will support this program. McCain and his allies are having a tough time getting money for defense and when you add troop cuts onto all this and you're going to have a full scale revolt of the tea party members (don't buy the press about the tea party...their main focus is on smaller government).
