DOD attempts to use war funds for Just So Failed

When you have no ethics, decisions like this come easy.

The Pentagon is asking Congress to move about $1.9 billion within its war budget to buy new F-35 fighter jets and Apache helicopters and to fund a secret modification to a 30,000-pound bomb being developed for possible use against Iranian bunkers.The Sept. 8 reprogramming request (PDF) to the congressional defense committees would divert most of the money - more than $1.2 billion - for eight new F-35s and spare parts.

Because the planes are replacing Harrier and F-15 jets destroyed in the Central Command area of responsibility, the new planes are officially justified as Overseas Contingency Operations requirements - whether or not they'll be used in the war zones.

It's not the first time the Pentagon has sought to replace destroyed aircraft with new F-35s. In the past, the move was criticized by some as a misuse of war funds.
The new request also includes $404 million for 21 new Apache helicopters to replace 21 Kiowa choppers lost in battle.

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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
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-Australian Defence answers serious F-35 project concerns with "so what?"
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-Outgoing LM F-35 program boss admits to flawed weight assumptions (March 2013)
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-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
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-Aboriginal brought out as a prop
-Super Kendall's F-35 problem
-LM sales force in pre-Internet era
-History of F-35 engine problems
-Compare