F-35 cost drops, Trump takes credit..We should have pivoted to capabilities.

Thanks to Spock for the link!

via Reuters.

President Donald Trump said on Monday his administration had been able to cut some $600 million from the latest U.S. deal to buy about 90 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, the Lockheed Martin aircraft the president has criticized for cost overruns.
Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, said Lockheed Martin had been responsive to his concerns about the high cost of the stealthy, high-tech warplane.
"We cut approximately $600 million off the F-35 fighter, and that only amounts to 90 planes out of close to 3,000 planes," Trump said, attributing that figure to Lockheed chief executive Marillyn Hewson.
Negotiations for the 10th batch of F-35 aircraft - about 90 planes - have been under way, with a deal expected by the end of the month. The contract was expected to be around $9 billion, with the price per plane falling below $100 million.
Trump said he became involved in the discussions over the cost of the aircraft about a month ago when he was still president-elect because the negotiations were not progressing.


"They were having a lot of difficulty. There was no movement. And I was able to get $600 million approximately off those planes. So I think that was a great achievement," Trump said, suggesting the savings would be even larger as more planes are bought and as the administration looks at other contracts.

Once again the anti-F35 community has dropped the ball.  I shouted that we should focus on capabilities and push the meme that the avionics on the F-35 were already obsolete compared to what we're hanging off our legacy aircraft and the so called brainiacs shot me down.

You see they're smart.  They have engineering degrees and are accounting freaks so they like digging into the weeds on those issues.

So what's happened.  They alienated guys like me from their discussions (I won't go into detail but never again), and they've been slow to react to a changing battlefield.

This fight requires agility.  It requires recognizing a changing battlefield.  It requires common sense.

When Trump entered the fray based on price it was obvious that the program office/Lockheed Martin would do anything possible to give him a win.  Accountants can do that.

The reality?  We should have focused on the Mattis lane of attack.  CAPABILITIES!

But no.  They're the brains and I'm just a blogger.  They jumbled the fight badly.  Its not over but the so called "smartest" guys in the room have made it much harder because they lack the agility to win.