'Affordable' is MIA and the sleeping giant awakens

Not mentioned in Paris this week; the sleeping giant awakens.

Senate Panel Barely Turns Back JSF Threat

Under the move, if at the end of 2011 the cost of the JSF purchased under the current Lot 4 contract ran 10% more than the target price, the amendment would have put the Pentagon’s largest weapon system on probation. Then, if the program continued to run at a 10% cost overrun one year later, the only money that could be spent thereafter would be to fund program cancellation costs, the proposal
stipulates.

It didn't go. But interesting as that giant is in debt up to his eyeballs.

“We want to stop that. That’s the wrong kind of incentive,” Levin says. “We say set a target price, negotiate it as tough as you can — if you go above that, you[Lockheed] eat it all.”

In Paris this week, the big F-35 briefing left out the word "affordable" as in previous marketing efforts over the years. It only says "Lethal, Survivable Supportable, Interoperable", at the bottom of the slide. I guess Cost As an Independant Variable (CAIV) has new meaning. Interesting as "Affordable" was in red in briefs starting from day-one of the program; as a prime goal.