DOD pushing war-funding F-35 buys to replace destroyed Harriers

In one of the more outrageous ways of turning a budget, this piece by Reuters official F-35 fan-writer states that those Harriers that were destroyed could justify using war-funding money to fund F-35s as replacements.

Sources familiar with the budget plans said the department could add funding for several F-35 jets to the supplemental war funding request to pay for some older Marine Corps Harrier jets destroyed in combat.

Kendall declined to give any details since defense officials are still working on the war spending request. But he suggested that F-35s could be potentially be used to replace destroyed Harriers.

"We're looking at ... what's appropriate. We want to take advantage of that as much as we can," he said. "The Marines had some Harriers destroyed. They need a replacement aircraft. What's the logical replacement? It's not more Harriers."

A 'logical replacement' would be something that works. That ain't the F-35.

The money wasted on 1 F-35B is nearly that of all the Harriers lost in that base security breach.