Lockheed-Martin, the Navy* and the Air Force have been apparently using the F-35 program to conduct a master-level class in how not to run a large weapon system procurement program.**
Poor management, cost overruns, severe quality control issues-- hell, one might conclude they dug up the program managers for the Aardvark and gave them the keys to the F-35 office.
Note the comment in the article that the F-35 may break the Pentagon's budget.
Forty years ago, there was a procurement study that projected that, given the cost growth in aircraft procurement programs since the Second World War, by 2060, the DoD would not be able to afford a new fighter program.
It now seems that the study's authors were grossly optimistic. We may be already there, thanks to the F-35. And LockMart.
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* In this case, "Navy" includes the Marines, who share much much of the responsibility for the dogginess of the F-35.
** As if the Air Force needed the practice.
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LockMart...
...the people who made computerized filing of flight plans the only reasonable option!
...the people who call a Air Traffic Sector in Texas that just happens to have an airport named Gainesville Municipal for an aircraft that requests a clearance from "Gainesville Regional Airport, Florida" and refers to the airport as "Gainesville"!
...the people who can't even answer the phone half the time we try to call them!
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