F-35's produced BEFORE its received clearance for full rate production????

via MSN Money.

Falling production costs will open up additional international sales opportunities for the F-35, Ken Possenriede, chief financial officer for Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin, said during the company’s Oct. 22 earnings call. Lockheed is on track to hit the $80 million target in production lot 13, he said, about the middle of the multiyear contract.

Lockheed rose as much as 1.3% to $375.45 Monday after Bloomberg News reported that the so-called block buy talks were concluded. The stock had advanced 42% this year through Friday, double the gain of the S&P 500.

The latest agreement brings to about 978 the number of U.S. and allied jets on contract out of a planned total of at least 3,100. The jet is still months away from the completion of rigorous combat testing against the toughest Russian and Chinese threats.

Story here. 

Consider this your annual pound on the table, rant about how we're doing procurement blog post.

Fact 1.  News came out and the usual fanboys have been stopping by practically foaming at the mouth about the recent buy of F-35s.

I can live with that.  If you're a supporter of the plane then that is good news.

Fact 2.  This MUST be beyond illegal.  Think about it.  almost 1000 planes have been/will be produced before its actually cleared its "combat certification".  That testing has been postponed till the end of 2020.

Fact 3.  The US govt has allowed a combat plane that has been nothing but development trouble to almost complete 1/3rd of its production run before we know if its even suitable for PRODUCTION!

This has to be criminal but no one is calling this for what it.

The F-35 IS the biggest procurement scandal in the history of military projects.