Senior Pentagon officials are considering postponing production of an additional 100 F-35 fighter jets by Lockheed Martin Corp as part of a five-year defense plan to be sent to Congress, according to three people familiar with the program.
"No decision is likely to be made until November or December, but this is clearly a major option that would help the Department of Defense meet the savings mandates under the Budget Control Act," said one person who was not authorized to speak on the record.
The program has already been restructured twice over the past two years, postponing production of over 224 radar-evading fighter planes -- moves that tend to drive up the price of each airplane in the short-term.
Unknown how this ties in with the previous news about keeping LRIP batches in the 30-some jet size for a couple of years.
Stevens said the plane's flight testing was ahead of schedule this year after delays in past years. At the end of August it was 8 percent ahead on flights and about 11 percent ahead on the number of test benchmarks it had completed.
It is yet to clear one weapon, clear the full envelop or show any worth in operational exercises; nearly 10 years after the start of the program.
Suppliers. Investors. Redundancies.
Lawyers.
3 comments:
Y'know, at this rate, the notional 2018 Bomber would be a "better investment" for battlefield interdiction and CAS, if only because we can be *sure* that at least it will be able to drop bombs ...
Heretic
Nothing to worry about, I am sure the proF35 crowd will just show some paper from 2007 saying this was already planned. Isn't that the response we always get? Don't worry, it was accounted for. Still hear that this will have nothing to do with the final price allies will pay for JSF. Yeah, you really believe the US taxpayer is going to pay $150 million and subsidize the sale to allies for $68 million?
It's still a $60m plane!
(but you got no engine, no avionic, and incomplete test battery)
If I were a government audit. At this point all I ask, you fuckers have been at it for decades longer than pak-fa. Now show me you can at least do all the pak-fa routine they show at MAKS 2011. No more BS.
(This should essentially show, completion of subsonic flying capability, with mature flight computer.)
If they fail even a single flying move. Then the program is shut down. (pretty much will be. The F-35 still doesn't have a completed flight computer.)
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