LM letter to NYT - LOL

Sent in to the NY Times.

LOL.

The Opinion Pages | LETTER

Progress on the F-35 Fighter Jet
AUG. 6, 2014

To the Editor:

“Rough Ride for the F-35” (editorial, July 28) did not mention why the F-35 fighter jet matters to national security or the significant progress we have made toward delivering software that will enable the Marines to declare Initial Operating Capability in 2015 and the Air Force to do the same in 2016 — progress recognized in many of the reports you cite.

Additionally, 65 percent of flight testing has been completed, and the program is on track to finish development by 2017. The F-35 fleet has flown more than 18,000 hours, 107 aircraft have been delivered, and aircraft cost has dropped by 55 percent.

Our responsibility is to provide the most advanced and affordable multirole fighter to our war fighters. We have no intention of relenting in this critical pursuit, especially when the imperative of maintaining future air dominance cannot be accomplished by buying more fourth-generation aircraft, as your editorial imprudently suggests.

The war fighters who protect our freedoms deserve the best, and the F-35 will deliver decisive advantages over any potential adversary for decades to come.

LORRAINE MARTIN
Exec.
V.P. and General Manager
F-35 Program, Lockheed Martin
Fort Worth, July 31, 2014

Sometimes it is more fun when the readership finds the glaring holes in those statements...


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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
-F-35 deliveries
-ADF's wacky F-35 assumptions
-Gauging performance, the 2008 F-35, Davis dream brief
-Aboriginal brought out as a prop
-Super Kendall's F-35 problem
-LM sales force in pre-Internet era