via The Record.com
Somewhere in Ottawa, unknown to the outside world, there is a black hole — a secret place where the government consigns toxic ideas, ideas that it dares not implement, yet cannot bring itself to kill.I've said it before and I'll say it again. Critics of the F-35 should have focused like a laser on the airplanes costs.
The F-35 fighter jet is one such idea. The Harper government has been grappling with it ever since it took office in 2006. It has heard from experts that the super-sophisticated F-35 is not the right plane; that it does not suit Canada's modest military requirements; that its single engine makes it too dangerous for patrols across the country's vast distances; and that its humongous cost — $45 billion or more for 65 aircraft — puts it well beyond the reach of the budget-conscious Conservatives.
Somehow the F-35 has managed to survive on the government's to-do list, never categorically endorsed, but also never firmly rejected. This June, it surfaced on the cabinet's agenda for a decision. To his credit, the prime minister removed the item from the agenda, ostensibly to give ministers more time to weigh the implications. So the F-35 went back into that black hole.
298 Billion dollars has been spent on this flying clusterfuck and its still in development!
The death spiral will arrive because the US and its allies will not be able to buy enough, fast enough to "push the cost curve down". Additionally, you can expect a crash program to develop a 6th gen fighter to come out of the shadows and take center stage when development continues to drag on.
This plane is the walking dead. We just need Rick to shoot it the face so the disease can't spread.
