Failed recipe

Interesting comments from the LM CEO re: the F-35 from this fan-based publication. Note that the title out of the piece looks like something out of the failed 2007 "Litening Strike" sales effort: "Trust us. It is good. Buy now". She is in a tough spot. She always has to preach the alleged value of the program to shareholders. Problem: the F-35 program isn't coming out of the oven looking anything like the JSF program recipe created in the 1990s. Or the hopes for it not long after LM won the JSF contract over Boeing.

All of this is a threat to other areas of the company that are doing well.

Lorraine Martin, general manager of the F-35 program, said Lockheed is in the process of negotiating low-rate initial production lot eight with the U.S. government and Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, the Pentagon’s F-35 program executive officer.

“I am still hopeful, as is Gen. Bogdan, that we will resolve this here in the summer timeframe,” Martin said.

Each LRIP contract is supposed to be less expensive per-aircraft than the previous deal, she said. Martin has promised that by 2019, Lockheed can produce an F-35 for less than a fourth-generation fighter like the F-16.

“The thing that the general and I have both said is that we have programs in place, that you’ll hear more about as they become more specific and tangible, that can get the aircraft to a fourth-gen price in the 2019 timeframe,” she said. “I do need people to buy them, because the economics of quantity is key.”

“We know that the program has not delivered to its expectations over the years,” she added. “I will continue to bring the price down as the quantities go up and as I put affordability initiatives in place.”

In regard to "I do need people to buy them," people generally buy things that work. With all the problems, this many years after the start of the program, there is nothing anywhere close to a working, go-to-war product. One of the first DOD JSF program managers stated that the business assumption for this aircraft was that "costs" would not "flatten out" until you got to 1500 aircraft built. Here we are already near the flatten-out point because of so many bad assumptions and leadership.

4th-gen "price" by 2019? I suspect then that she will not be in this job by then to answer to that statement.

Look at the quotes again. I suspect closed-door meetings these days, may be more interesting when deciding what can legally be stated to shareholders.

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-Time's Battleland - 5 Part series on F-35 procurement - 2013 
-Summary of Air Power Australia F-35 points
-Bill Sweetman, Aviation Week and the F-35
-U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO) F-35 reports
-F-35 JSF: Cold War Anachronism Without a Mission
-History of F-35 Production Cuts
-Looking at the three Japan contenders (maneuverability)
-How the Canadian DND misleads the public about the F-35
-Value of STOVL F-35B over-hyped
-Cuckoo in the nest--U.S. DOD DOT&E F-35 report is out
-6 Feb 2012 Letter from SASC to DOD boss Panetta questioning the decision to lift probation on the F-35B STOVL.
-USAFs F-35 procurement plan is not believable
-December 2011 Australia/Canada Brief
-F-35 Key Performance Perimeters (KPP) and Feb 2012 CRS report
-F-35 DOD Select Acquisition Report (SAR) FY2012
-Release of F-35 2012 test report card shows continued waste on a dud program
-Australian Defence answers serious F-35 project concerns with "so what?"
-Land of the Lost (production cut history update March 2013)
-Outgoing LM F-35 program boss admits to flawed weight assumptions (March 2013)
-A look at the F-35 program's astro-turfing
-F-35 and F-16 cost per flying hour
-Is this aircraft worth over $51B of USMC tac-air funding?
-Combat radius and altitude, A model
-F-35A, noise abatement and airfields and the USAF
-Deceptive marketing practice: F-35 blocks
-The concurrency fraud
-The dung beetle's "it's known" lie
-F-35's air-to-air ability limited
-F-35 Blocks--2006 and today
-The F-35B design is leaking fuel