Stryker--legacy of lies

Reader Blacktail has provided a wonderful set of YouTube videos made from 2009, about the U.S. Army's faulty Stryker AFV. There are 8 chapters with multiple parts. I have linked the videos from Chapter 2 below which deals with Stryker protection or the lack of it.

I have been aware of Stryker failings for a long time. No other presentation method you may have seen on Stryker failings tops Blacktail's efforts.

I would go so far to say that these are award winning videos based on the information presented. The non-perfect presentation method has a charm all its own with the frack from a high-school band coronet around the 1 minute and 1 second mark of many videos.

I am a believer in the U.S. Army; to a point. What we can see is that in future real wars against non-dirt insurgents, the U.S. Army Stryker Brigade concept is less survivable than a Sherman tank in Operation:GOODWOOD.

This means all those Stryker Brigades are essentially undeployable against a hardcore threat. Please take the time to view all the videos in Chapther 2 below. And don't forget, there are 7 other chapters that tell of the Stryker fraud.

--Chapter 2 (Stryker protection)

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3 (best music award)

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

More misleading statements by LM on F-35 unit cost

It keeps coming up every now and then. The DOD F-35 project office even asked LockMart to stop public statements about F-35 unit costs that were insanely low that are now, at this juncture; fantasy.

He said labor costs were coming down faster on the F-35 program than any previous fighter jet program in over 40 years. Lockheed is on track to hit its target unit "flyaway" cost, excluding development, of $67 million in fiscal 2012 dollars by 2018, he added.

TR-2 hardware and Block 3 software has to actually work in a go-to-war configuration by that time.

Also, what is sad about this article is that a reporter that has been on the F-35 beat for a while, refuses to actively challenge such nonsense other than some occasional weak efforts. Not really reporting.

The alleged biggest buyer of the F-35, the USAF, has significant issues trying to afford the F-35. Note: R&D dollars not counted. It is doubtful that $67M will buy you even the roll-away price without a motor.

In the end, more evidence to log in the area of RICO statute and the Ponzi scheme Thana-marking fraud-like behavior associated with the marking of the Just So Farcical.

Norway's gamble

Not especially smart on F-35 program problems, Norway's State Secretary throws one out there for the sheep:

Ingrebrigtsen, however, downplays any concerns. "If you don’t want any problems, you should never buy an air fighter," he said, adding that this is a new project that is breaking barriers — and with that comes a critical eye among skeptics.

Norway, Defence-wide has problems making ends meet. Unit-readiness is a problem across the board.

Yet, they are willing to throw good money after bad in order to play in the greatest Defence Ponzi Scheme of all time.

$11B for 50-some jets.

That could buy and sustain a lot of Gripens; something that actually works and doesn't cost $35,500 per flying hour.

F-35 program seriously misleads public-- "$70 million each"

One would think that with budget cuts coming, it would be bad for a high-risk, troubled, overly expensive and faulty defense program to have its public affairs people mislead the public.

Yet, this release (PDF) from the U.S. DOD F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) via their very own website, does just that.

The brand-new jets, $70 million each, are arriving at Eglin regularly — roaring in directly from the factory in Dallas.

A quick check of SARs and DOD budget line items (even just procurement with no R&D), shows no "$70 million each" F-35 anywhere in sight. Even the special "roll-away" cost with no motor.

$70M? Really?

Also, to be accurate--in order for the benefit of the moron that wrote this nonsense--the factory is in Fort Worth.

It goes on. Petting the badger.

Thus F-35 boosters like Toth imply with confidence that their baby is virtually immune from the knives of Washington budget cutters.

Well, history shows, that just is not so, given that due to program management incompetence what we have is this:


(click image to make larger)

Which is a down-turn from 2003:


(click image to make larger)

I suspect that there are more cuts to come and then...what?

My guess is the new JPO boss General Bogdan hasn't gotten around to having a chat with his public affairs folks.

11 years after F-35 contract award, DOD issues a cry for help

The F-35 journey up to this point has been a fraud.

“It’s about $37 million for the CTOL aircraft, which is the air force variant.”
- Colonel Dwyer Dennis, U.S. JSF Program Office brief to Australian journalists, 2002-

All the PowerPoint slides; all the marketing hype, all the claims of being "affordable and sustainable."


(grossly misleading excerpt from 2007 Lockheed
Martin briefing to Israel)


All the misleading statements to the U.S. Congress and Foreign Parliaments.

Just a few days ago, the U.S. Department of Defense issued a cry for help.

After all those misleading statements for years, the U.S. Department of Defense office that manages the F-35 program, (known as the F-35 Joint Program Office or "JPO") does not know how to make the F-35 "affordable and sustainable". And, it would appear that the new F-35 JPO boss has little to no confidence in what Lockheed Martin has been telling the DOD all these years:

3. OBJECTIVES
The F-35 JPO has not yet determined the acquisition strategy for F-35 sustainment, including the competitive approach; solicitation, evaluation, and award methodology; contract vehicle; socio-economic considerations; scope or hardware/services; delivery schedule/period of performance; rough order of magnitude/budget; intended number of contract awards; or acquisition timeline. The F-35 JPO intends to use information provided in response to this RFI, in addition to other market research, to refine its acquisition strategy and to evaluate alternatives that will deliver the best value, long-term F-35 sustainment solution. This supports the broader F-35 JPO goals of increased affordability, transparency, predictability, and accountability for sustainment costs and performance.

What have these people been doing with our billions all these years?

Not much.

UK MOD makes up story on F-35 concerns

All the difficulty and yet the UK MOD entrenched bureaucracy doesn't get it.

An MoD spokesman said: “The UK has been at the heart of the Joint Strike Fighter programme for over 10 years, playing a key role in development and production with 15 per cent of the work carried out in the UK.

The programme remains on track and we have recently taken delivery of our first test fighter jet..”

Yeah, the UK took delivery of its first F-35. It is in no way, anywhere close to working with go-to-war systems.

Looking the other way

F-35 program failure explained.

Read the comments after the outburst.

LOL

Top U.S. Defense firms deliver weapons with Chinese counterfeit parts

The counterfeit parts problem in major U.S. weapons systems continues:

The Senate Armed Services Committee report uncovered 1,800 cases of counterfeit parts, including parts in the Electromagnetic Interference Filters used in night missions and in operation of "hellfire" missiles on SH-60B Navy helicopters.

They were also found in memory chips in the display systems of C-17 Globemaster III and C-130J military cargo planes, and refurbished ice detection modules on the Navy P-8A Poseidon, modified Boeing 737 aircraft incorporated with anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare capabilities.

Democratic Chairman Carl Levin, who launched the report alongside Republican John McCain, says it "outlines how this flood of counterfeit parts, overwhelmingly from China, threatens national security, the safety of our troops and American jobs."

The obvious: some of the above systems are in use by the ADF.

And there is more:

Suspect Display Parts

Two new Air Force C-27J Spartans from New York-based L-3 deployed to Afghanistan had displays with suspect parts, according to the panel.

The committee traced memory chips in the L-3 to the company in Shenzhen, which also delivered an earlier counterfeit part L-3 discovered in October 2009, the panel said.

The Air Force on January 13 suspended the company, Hong Dark Electronic Trade Co., from Pentagon contracting, according to a memo from the service.

“Hong Dark has supplied suspect counterfeit parts” to a middleman who then sold the parts to L-3 Communications, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon, among others, Air Force Deputy General Counsel Steven Shaw said in the memo.

Many of the 84,000 electronic parts from Hong Dark have been installed on aircraft such the C-17 transport and helicopters such as the AH-64 Apache and CH-46, according to Shaw.

Lot Samples

After the November hearing, L-3 officials sent samples from 20 lots of parts purchased from the company for independent testing, which confirmed that all except two were suspect, according to the Senate committee.

L-3 also provided the committee an “extensive” list of equipment beyond the C-27J aircraft that contained suspect counterpart parts, such as the Traffic Alert and and Collision Avoidance System for preventing mid-air collisions used on several military programs, including the Global Hawk drone from Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC)

So basically, the RAAFs top U.S. labelled C-130J, C-17 and the upcoming C-27 have some part content issues. Australia is also looking at the P-8A Poseidon. Who knows what else is out there.

Whatever it takes

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter arrival to Australia has been delayed another 2 years to 2019. This kind of delay is the most consistent performance metric in all of the failed program.

The F-35 for Australia is now 9 years late as mentioned by some in 2002 or 7 years late according to some from the same time-frame. I suppose this all depends on if you are an F-35 optimist or not.

In 2002, the then Air Vice-Marshall Houston stated that the F-35 would be affordable because there were 3000 jets on the order-book.

No such "order-book" existed. But, there you are.

Defence is quick to claim this delay to the increasing federal budget woes. While it is true that the current ruling party seems to have no end to their spend-thrift ways, the F-35 is being delayed because it is unaffordable.

Healthy federal budget or no.

Here is a quick summary of the various claims of F-35 cost over the years:

“It’s about $37 million for the CTOL aircraft, which is the air force variant.”
- Colonel Dwyer Dennis, U.S. JSF Program Office brief to Australian journalists, 2002-

". . . US$40 million dollars . . "
-Senate Estimates/Media Air Commodore John Harvey, AM Angus Houston, Mr Mick Roche, USDM, 2003-

" . . US$45 million in 2002 dollars . ."
-JSCFADT/Senate Estimates, Air Commodore John Harvey, Mr Mick Roche, USDM, 2003/2004-

". . average unit recurring flyaway cost of the JSF will be around US$48 million, in 2002 dollars . . "
-Senate Estimates/Press Club Briefing, Air Commodore John Harvey, 2006

". . the JSF Price (for Australia) - US$55 million average for our aircraft . . in 2006 dollars . ."
-Senate Estimates/Media AVM John Harvey ACM Angus Houston, Nov. 2006-

“…DMO is budgeting around A$131 million in 2005 dollars as the unit procurement cost for the JSF. .”
-AVM John Harvey Briefing, Office of the Minister for Defence, May 2007-

“There are 108 different cost figures for the JSF that I am working with and each of them is correct”
-Dr Steve Gumley, CEO of the DMO, Sep./Oct. 2007-

“…I would be surprised if the JSF cost us anymore than A$75 million … in 2008 dollars at an exchange rate of 0.92”
-JSCFADT Dr Steve Gumley, CEO DMO, July 2008-

". . Dr Gumley's evidence on the cost of the JSF was for the average unit recurring flyaway cost for the Australian buy of 100 aircraft . ."
-JSCFADT/Media AVM John Harvey, Aug. 2008-

Confirmed previous advice i.e. A$75 million in 2008 dollars at an exchange rate of 0.92,
-JSCFADT Dr Steve Gumley, CEO of the DMO, Sep. 2009-

" ...about $77 million per copy."
-Robert Gates, U.S. Secretary of Defense, Feb. 2008.

This pulls the rug out from anyone that claims Faulkner and his folly (or any other empty suit that ends up in the Defence Minister job) are especially smart.

For some years, DM's made the grave error of believing the advisers in their department. Only Smith shows a glowing ember of understanding this situation.

Besides the cost, the F-35 also shows no proof of delivering a credible combat capability. It is seriously defective.

Liability: yes.

In any event, we the taxpayer, have the honour to spend two more years paying the failed New Air Combat Capability (NACC) to go to junkets around the word and look like they are doing something. Even if they have done nothing of worth.

I find it interesting that no-one is asking the question of why we should buy two, over-priced F-35 mistake jets of which Smith says we are "contractually" bound.

A scam upon a scam.

If no-one has any answers on how to end this madness, the only other solution is to pull another $3B from the entrenched Defence bureaucracy until they surrender. If that doesn't work; another $3B.

Whatever it takes to stop the fraud being heaped upon the taxpayer.

Representative Kay Granger (LM)

Read this article about a recent Israeli tour of the F-35 plant in Fort Worth.

Forget all the idiocy of the poor Israelis who are on their way to get stuck with this lemon.

Instead, notice the rest of the article. You have people like Representative Kay Granger who think the F-35 will be useful in future combat.

"China is preparing for the future, Russia is preparing for the future, we have to prepare for the future and the F-35 is the future."

I wonder how that is so?

Granger, like some other proponents of the F-35 thinks delays are anyone but Lockheed Martin's fault. I wonder why that is? It is a known pattern with F-35 cheerleaders.

Granger, the former Fort Worth mayor who plays a key role as chairwoman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State-Foreign Operations and as a member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, blamed changing Pentagon requirements for delays and the higher price tag.

So the answer is this. Look at the PDF below which shows political contributions from Lockheed Martin in general and Lockheed Martin officials specifically to Rep. Kay Granger. Notice all the names on there that anyone who follows the F-35 program will recognize.

Kay Granger is bought and paid for. There is no other explanation for the misinformation about the F-35 program which she parrots.



data source: opensecrets.org

Pulling CF-18 replacement responsibility from the DND was the right decision

Based on what we now know, pulling the procurement management of a CF-18 replacement from the DND was the correct decision.

This article points to some pretty shocking behaviour by the DND.

While pondering what now seems obvious, consider this summary on Thana Marketing and compare it to what you have been told by the cheerleaders when they tell us about F-35 greatness.