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The F-35 Story

New submitter phyzz writes "The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program aimed to replace several aircraft from three major military services with a fifth-generation model capable of short-takeoff and vertical-landing while maintaining the capability of sustained supersonic flight — all while staying affordable. The project has finally gotten some test points validated, but after a decade in development and numerous cost and schedule overruns, it faces an uphill fight against budget reductions. Bloomberg has an interesting story about the program's troubled past. Quoting: 'Ten years and $66 billion later, the aircraft is still in development, five years behind schedule and 64 percent over cost estimates. The Obama administration may cancel some models and also cut the Pentagon’s orders. The plane, envisioned as the affordable stealth fighter for the U.S. and allies, has turned into a budget target. "I’d blame the program’s setbacks on the fact that we lived in a rich man’s world," said Jacques Gansler, a former Pentagon chief weapons buyer in the Clinton administration and now a professor at the University of Maryland at College Park. "There has been less emphasis on cost over the past 10 years," he said.'"

509 comments

  1. Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I think the larger story isn't a troubled individual program, it's a federal government that outsources and contracts almost *everything* these days. Having grown up around military bases, I find the level of contracting with anything military to be very troubling these days. I remember back in the 80's when bases began contracting out things like food services. Okay, that seemed pretty reasonable. But I recently went back to an old base that I had once been stationed at back in the day and being shocked by how far this has really gone. Not only were food services, the PX, laundries, etc. run by civilians--but so was base *security*. Instead of MP's greeting me at the gate, it was a bunch of rent-a-cops. I'm not even sure the base *has* MP's anymore (never saw any of them). It would seem a handful of contractors and merc firms do pretty much everything now for the government.

    Thanks to the lobbying money of the Lockheed Martins, Northrop Grummans, and Blackwaters (or whatever the fuck they're calling themselves these days), we have overpriced weapons/aircraft programs that function as little more than cash funnels, U.S. embassies guarded not by Marines but by mercs, and a NASA that can't even build a rocket anymore without a Lockheed or Boeing to do all the work for them.

    So why should Lockheed Martin care if the F-35 goes over budget, or the MEADS system turns out to be a money sink, etc. etc. ? It's not like a Congress that they *own* is ever going to call them to task for it. And they'll get a hundred *new* contracts to replace them. So why should it surprise anyone to see stories like this pop up again and again on /.?

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by 0racle · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I believe weapons development of this type was always done by contractors. NASA never built rockets, the Navy never built ships and the Army/Air Force never built planes.

      Contracting everything out everywhere has in many places got out of hand, but the JSF program isn't really one of them. The only thing I'm not sure about is if there were ever penalties for budget overruns.

      --
      "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
    2. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Drummergeek0 · · Score: 1

      Everything military is going civilian, when I got out of the USAF 4 years ago, they were in the process of outsourcing (or A-76'ing as it was called) all of the base support squadrons. Comm (which is where I was), Civil Engineering, and Mission Support were all going civilian to "save cost".

      --
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
    3. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by chebucto · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I was first really shocked about military outsourcing when I saw a photo of L. Paul Bremner III, the proconsul for Iraq, being guarded by a group of Blackwater people.

      How on earth is this justified - forget the question of allegiance and loyalty, outsourcing has got to cost more than using your own troops.

      What happens now seems to be
      - USG invests hunderds of thousands or millions of dollars in training for 1334 soldiers and pays them a civil service salary
      - Mercenary corp hire them and pays them double their salary
      - USG contracts Mercenary corp, and gets its own soldiers back and four times the price and one quarter the loyalty.

      --
      The English word fart is one of the oldest words in the English vocabulary.
    4. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Our planes have always been "outsourced" to the Lockheed's of the world... the question is, what changed.

    5. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by GodInHell · · Score: 1

      It would seem a handful of contractors and merc firms do pretty much everything now for the government.

      Hey now, they don't do everything. Soldiers get to do all the fighting and dieing, and for much less per hour!

      -GiH

    6. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Figher aircraft have traditionally run over budget. It has paid off, anyway - expensive aircraft have turned out to be very capable in a 'you get what you pay for' way. The F-35 is no different. Is there pork or inefficiency in some of what happened? Probably, and it would be nice to recover it - but in general a new fighter aircraft running over budget and late on milestones should not be a surprise.

    7. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Lemmy+Caution · · Score: 3, Interesting

      We live in the world of pure economics now, where the only real motivation that institutions believe matters is money. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

      It is fascinating that the enemies of the US right now are those people who believe in something worthing killing and dying for that isn't money.

    8. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by h4rr4r · · Score: 1, Insightful

      It is a worse aircraft and almost as expensive if not more so now, then the F-22. It is also many years later. Had we kept building F-22s the price would have gone down.

    9. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is the way it *SHOULD* be you dumbass statist. Only the PRIVATE sector can do things reliably, consistently, and with absolute dedication to quality and affordability through innovation and the invisible hand of the free market. The government (as we all know from all the stories on slashdot) is incompetent in everything it does, why woul dyou want national security handled by people whos only interest is the size of their fat cat union backed paycheck?

    10. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think the larger story isn't a troubled individual program, it's a federal government that outsources and contracts almost *everything* these days.

      The word 'drawdown' is the fault here.
      Let's say for a given capability, it takes 5,000,000 individuals. 4.5 million uniforms, and 500,000 civilian contractors. Along comes Congress, and they want to, in the name of votes, drawdown the number of uniforms on active duty. So down we go down to 3,000,000 active duty, Hooray! We cut the size of ythe military!
      But wait a minute. It still takes 5,000,000 individuals to run that given capability. So now you have 3,000,000 uniforms, and 2,000,000 civilians.

      In some cases, this is a good thing. I'd rather have a young airman out fixing a jet rather than wasting the day cutting the grass. So hire a local company to do that grass.
      But I'd also rather have active duty Marines protecting a US official in Kabul, rather than Blackwater doing it.

    11. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by ByOhTek · · Score: 2

      In my experience, *MOST* of the government inefficiency we find, comes from private organizations abusing the government funds (thinking of them as unlimited), and the decisions by the legislators in those peoples pockets...

      --
      Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
    12. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by ackthpt · · Score: 1

      Figher aircraft have traditionally run over budget. It has paid off, anyway - expensive aircraft have turned out to be very capable in a 'you get what you pay for' way. The F-35 is no different. Is there pork or inefficiency in some of what happened? Probably, and it would be nice to recover it - but in general a new fighter aircraft running over budget and late on milestones should not be a surprise.

      I think there are those who see these programs coming along and do everything in their power to create an environment where the development will go into overruns. Further, there's the build in expectation that it must cost an absolutely sick amount of money.

      The reality is, most of these fighters will encounter aircraft and weapons a couple of generations behind them, held together by cannibalised parts and flown by pilots who have more guts than training.

      If the Pentagon said, "We want a new jet, designed and tested and ready to go into mass production, with the initial program less than $10 billion dollars", you can bet someone will overturn that and want the intial program to have a budget two or three times that. Those people are determined to have as much ot the program costs expended in their congressional districts.

      --

      A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    13. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      That is incorrect.

      The F-22 is a better aircraft at blowing other planes out of the sky. That is its mission, what it has been built for, and what it does. (Also, it is getting upgrades from F-35 tech developments. Fighters are always undergoing upgrades)

      The F-35 is a strike fighter. Its job is to blow up various ground targets, and it does this better than the F-22. Again, that is its mission and what it was built to do.

      It isn't worse than an F-22, it has a completely different mission - and yes, purpose built-aircraft /are/ better than other aircraft at fulfilling their purpose - that's why they get built. Not a lot of countries can afford to build pure air to air fighters. The US can.

    14. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "It's not like a Congress that they *own* is ever going to call them to task for it." - As someone who works at an LM plant that had around 1/4 of their workforce laid off due to a program cancellation, I disagree with you.

      Also note that in the case of that program, just like with F-35, the customer is just as much at fault as the contractor. Just read the F-35 story, and it's the same old story - costs skyrocketed because the customer couldn't make up their damn mind and kept on changing technical requirements or shuffling around the schedule. (See, for example, this gem from TFA - "Instead, after the Marines lobbied to have their model go first, the Pentagon in 2003 asked Lockheed to begin work on that jet. It also sought more software capabilities in earlier versions of the plane than originally planned, Muellner said.")

      Changing a program midway through development after contract award is a LOT more expensive than finishing your first baseline, then adding features onto an already-complete baseline as a followon. "scope creep" is a killer of programs.

      It generally goes:
      Government submits a request for proposal
      Contractors submit bids
      One contractor wins
      Contractor begins executing per proposal
      Customer then says, "Hey can I have this?"
      Contractor says, "It'll cost you $x"
      Customer says "Sure" - and here's where it starts going down the tubes. This is where the "rich man's world" mentioned above comes into play.

      End result is that program costs skyrocket and schedule slips due to the churn. Now yes, the contractor is to some degree at fault for not saying "This is the baseline we bid and we're going to stick to it", but the fact is that the customer pressured the contractor into changing the baseline mid-program to begin with.

      Funny thing is, engineers at one company who will remain nameless are constantly taught in training classes to commit to a baseline and finish it - then the program managers have them reassigned when they try to execute their training and fight scope creep.

    15. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by radtea · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Figher aircraft have traditionally run over budget.

      I read this thread just to find an idiot saying this so I could respond to it.

      Every time a large project goes over budget some idiot always says, "OF COURSE it went over budget. Projects of type X ALWAYS go over budget."

      This is nothing but an indictment of the idiots in charge of the project, since if projects of that type ALWAYS go over budget, it was as predictable before the project started as it was in hindsight, and therefore should have been accounted for in the budget projections. If it was not, then the project planners and the people who hired them are completely incompetent and should be discharged, preferably from a cannon.

      --
      Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
    16. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Kenja · · Score: 1

      What changed is we stopped asking the question "what is it for" and just started writing checks for anything they could produce.

      There is no need for a new fighter jet. So why did we buy one?

      --

      "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    17. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Sir_Sri · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Part of the game that everyone plays is they pitch it to the public under budget, and but then pay cost overruns anyway, everyone involved knowing full well that there will be cost overruns, but once you're 66 billion dollars invested, another few billion to get you out isn't that much.

      The other thing is: what's the alternative? We're having this discussion in canada right now. We have F18's. We are slated to buy F35's, and there are certainly other aircraft we could consider (the Eurofighter for example, or one of the Russian aircraft), or we can stick with what we have. Sticking with what we have is fine, but 15 years from now we may find it rather difficult to get new aircraft quickly if we need them. For the US it's not able to afford (nor would it want) 2000 F22's, so the choices are slim, buying 2000 eurofighters would be politically impractical, and the F35 is a better aircraft anyway. So options are limited at this point. Axing the project and starting afresh would set everything back, and be tremendously expensive - so the F35 project has to work at this point, cost overruns or not.

    18. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by ackthpt · · Score: 1

      In my experience, *MOST* of the government inefficiency we find, comes from private organizations abusing the government funds (thinking of them as unlimited), and the decisions by the legislators in those peoples pockets...

      And that abuse is hard fought for by the very people who claim to be trimming the budget.

      It's called Bringing Home The Bacon and a time honored tradition among Representatives. B1 Bomber and Sergeant York vehicle come to mind.

      --

      A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    19. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by h4rr4r · · Score: 2

      yes, purpose built-aircraft /are/ better than other aircraft at fulfilling their purpose

      Considering we are talking about the F-35 Jack of all Trades, Master of none, that is a pretty funny thing to mention. The thing was built to be everything to everyone. That is just a great way to make sure it fills no ones needs well and costs more than anyone wanted to pay.

    20. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by dkleinsc · · Score: 2

      You have to remember that from Lockheed's point of view, government funds *are* unlimited. From Lockheed's point of view, cost and timeline overruns are simply increased profit. They will never, ever, be punished for failing to meet their contract terms, and they know it.

      People who've looked into the issue basically think a motivated POTUS could conceivably spend his entire term trying to clean up the cesspool of corruption known as defense contracting, and still wouldn't even come close to succeeding. That should give you some idea of how bad it is.

      --
      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    21. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by TheLink · · Score: 1

      it's a federal government that outsources and contracts almost *everything* these days

      Of course, that's because many voters keep stupidly asking for small government, so the people in power figure out ways to reduce headcount and pretend to have "small government" while still enriching themselves.

      So be careful for what you ask for. You might get it. Quality matters more than Quantity.

      The next "obvious" step is the voters saying "No it's not just about headcount" and want to reduce Government spending and taxes as well. If forced to, they'd do stuff like give/sell off the profitable bits and have their Crony Corporations now charge fees, tolls, rent instead (of taxes).

      Then you'd have small government, low taxes, low government spending, low regulation. The dreams of the voters and some people in power will come true.

      But the voters would be even more screwed, since the voters would find it even harder to "vote out" Corporations they don't want.

      When that happens don't expect voters to succeed voting with their wallets when:
      a) they clearly did a stupid job voting with the ballot
      b) the votes of the rich and powerful count for more
      c) you have even fewer "candidates" and good luck having independents for "Tolled Highways" or "Defense Management Corporation".

      As for voting with bullets, sure you can try to get rid of everything, but you may then have to wait for the Supreme Dictator's great-grandchild to take over and decide that Democracy might be a cool thing to try.

      --
    22. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Program complexity - as complexity increases and development times increase, the risk of the customer causing scope-creep mid-program increases drastically.

      Also, because a few dishonest companies bilked the government, everything is now more expensive across the board. Increased oversight makes it hard for honest contractors to just "git er' done" without spending hours dealing with EVMS bullshit.

    23. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by h4rr4r · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The alternative is the company gets their 66 billion and either has to deliver the plane or the money back.

    24. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So...what's new here?

    25. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course, that's because many voters keep stupidly asking for small government,

      We ask for a "for real" small government - not a government that pretends to be small but in reality has expanded boatloads with stupid accounting/accountability/contracting.

      Having said that, I'd imagine there's far less waste contracting that politicians foisting unsustainable government employee pensions on future taxpayers.

    26. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Every time someone tries to blame "lobbying money" on a problem ... what you are really saying ... is that the government employees in charge of making decisions and overseeing programs are incompetent.

      I can lobby that you buy a #2 pencil from me for $500. If you are dumb enough to do it, then the next time you ask how much a pencil costs, being the astute business person I am, the answer will be $600. The price, and consequently the waste, won't go down, until you wise up and refuse to pay $500 for a pencil.

    27. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by radtea · · Score: 2

      Part of the game that everyone plays is they pitch it to the public under budget, and but then pay cost overruns anyway, everyone involved knowing full well that there will be cost overruns, but once you're 66 billion dollars invested, another few billion to get you out isn't that much.

      There are perfectly well-known processes to to deal with this kind of nonsense, so bringing it up as an "excuse" is like saying, "Of course the building burned down! It's made of unprotected wood and the workers are using blow-torches!" If anyone gave that as an "excuse" for an industrial accident they would quite rightly be looked at like the incompetent wanker they were, but somehow no one ever calls people on it when they use exactly the same "logic" in equally predictable financial disasters that no one made even the tiniest bit of effort to avoid.

      Second-lowest-bid contracts are one common and well-understood way of motivating people to bid their best estimate of cost, for example. This is not rocket science (well, OK, it's game theory, but still... it's game theory that's decades old.)

      --
      Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
    28. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by demachina · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think the cost comparison needs to factor in the lifetime cost of a soldier. In particular a lifetime of health care through the VA and if you stay in the military for at least 30 years the fat pension.

        If you put in 20 years you get a pension equal to 50% of your last paycheck, or at 40 years you get 100%. So⦠you can start drawing a pension at age 38 and if you live to 90, which is increasingly common, you draw a pension for 52 years.

      As life expectancy and health care costs have skyrocketed, there is a rationale for outsourcing everything except actual war fighting, the benefits have become exorbinantly too expensive to have soldiers do house keeping work.

      --
      @de_machina
    29. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by geoffrobinson · · Score: 1

      The men in uniform are not nor have ever been designing advanced airplanes.

      --
      Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
    30. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by hitmark · · Score: 1

      Because rather then various entries for food, gear and whatsnot there is one entry for contractor billing on the spreadsheet.

      Also, if shit happens they can "cancel" the contract and turn around to hire someone else (never mind that it may well be the same outfit under a different name). Plausible deniability...

      --
      comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
    31. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      It isn't a jack of all trades - that is a popular misconception.. It is a strike fighter. It's job is to handle strike missions.

    32. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by bhcompy · · Score: 2

      They do that to a degree with the F-15. That said, an all stealth air force is prohibitively expensive to maintain, imho. Keep targeted platforms like the A-10 that are the best in the world at what they do, because they already are proven to work, they are cheaper to maintain, and the F-35 will not improve or equal on what the existing plane already does.

    33. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by ocdscouter · · Score: 1

      This is the way it *SHOULD* be you dumbass statist. Only the PRIVATE sector can do things reliably, consistently, and with absolute dedication to quality and affordability through innovation and the invisible hand of the free market. The government (as we all know from all the stories on slashdot) is incompetent in everything it does, why woul dyou want national security handled by people whos only interest is the size of their fat cat union backed paycheck?

      As opposed to people whose only interest is the size of their fat cat government-backed contract?

    34. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The impressive aspect of this to me is how Lockheed Et Al managed to become so untouchable with these projects. They seem manufacturing, research and assembly locations in every state they can, not for the sake of efficiency, but to impact as many senatorial and congressional districts as possible. When a contract is threatened, instead of one location being in danger of losing it's pet project**, you have 20, spread across a dozen states who just happen to have congress critters in the finance, defense, appropriations, etc committee's. If the constituents of 60% of the members of a defense committee are in danger, The company in question is sure to spend it's money pointing out that fact. Rather than potentially screw up a re-election, the overbudget, overfunded bloated corpse of what used to be a good idea gets pushed along again.

      The really sad part is the folks designing the equipment many times want what's best for the end user (re-soldiers, etc) But that's not why the game is played. I think it used to be (at least to some extent), but now it's all about the money. It's a profit driven industry with the only customer in the world without an end to it's checkbook, so there is no stopping point. $66 billion? why not 100, 200. It's not real tangible money at that level. Most people would fight you if you asked them for $100 from their personal wallet, but $100 billion from the magical "federal budget"? sure, why not.

      **we see this all the time in NE Ohio, with GM assigning specific vehicles to each factory. Every other year or so it's "Oh no, if GM Lordstown doesn't get the new Cruze, it'll be the whargarbllle apocalypes!!!11!!"

    35. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by h4rr4r · · Score: 2

      Sadly they intend to replace the A-10 with the F-35. It will be a far more expensive way to kill tanks. As a bonus it will also burn more fuel to do the same job, while being more fragile.

    36. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Meeni · · Score: 1

      "projects of that type ALWAYS go over budget, it was as predictable before the project started as it was in hindsight, and therefore should have been accounted for"

      The project manager is not an idiot. He knew that the project would not have been voted at its real price. He decreased the price beyond acceptance sticker price. When the budget overruns, you have spent so much already, and the end always looks so close, that you think putting another billion will close the deal. The project manager has been smart, he made a project that would not have fundings start.

    37. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Charliemopps · · Score: 1

      and if something goes wrong, they can blame the contracting corp they hired. That's why.

    38. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Machtyn · · Score: 1

      Heck, the Army never built and supplied the guns, Jeeps, etc that they utilized.

    39. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      The F-22 is a better aircraft at blowing other planes out of the sky.

      I would be very impressed if it could do this from its hangar, because AFAIK the damned things are STILL grounded.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    40. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Machtyn · · Score: 1

      Can I blame unions? Seriously, the unions will lobby the government to ensure that only union labor gets utilized. They've created a monopoly that the government must use the most expensive labor we've got, not necessarily the best labor we've got.

    41. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Dunbal · · Score: 2

      another few billion to get you out isn't that much.

      Yeah, that's real easy to say when it's not your money. A few billion here, and a few billion there, and before you know it the whole country is bankrupt. Oh, wait.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    42. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by gl4ss · · Score: 4, Interesting

      what's different here from half a century ago is that usa government essentially contracted development instead of delivery.

      nothing ever gets ready that way. what penalty could there be for a budget overrun? think about it. the profit margin is counted in the development as long as it continues and the engineers will walk away if they're not paid. so the penalty would be losing support contracts for the machinery, which could go to any bidder anyways. but canceling means throwing away the investment, so the program is a hostage and motivation to finish isn't sky high, again because everyone working on development is working on development.. and there's no real war scenario so the deadlines don't really matter - anything can be tweaked to infinity.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    43. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      "Contracting everything out everywhere has in many places got out of hand, but the JSF program isn't really one of them. The only thing I'm not sure about is if there were ever penalties for budget overruns."

      And as soon as penalties are nonexistant, what prevents these private companies that are suppose to be super efficient from becoming public companies that are always ragged on as being wasteful of tax dollars, etc? (hint: Nothing.)

      The only real penalty that would get these guys to stay in budget, or be honest about the budget they expect it to take (And risk losing the contract), would be a canceling of whatever they were set to do, and being forbidden from bidding in future contracts for at least a few years.

      In a perfect world.

      In the US, all that would encourage would be for those companies to make shell companies to do the bidding for them - enough to get around whatever number of years must pass for the original company to start bidding again with the cycle starting again. Oh, and they'd buy out all competition possible.

    44. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Dunbal · · Score: 0

      We live in the world of pure economics now, where the only real motivation that institutions believe matters is money. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

      No. You have forgotten what is important, that's all. Wait until the barbarians show up at the gates - you know, the ones that don't give a damn about your sestertii, your circuses and your plumbing. Then when your woman is raped and your house is burning and your children are dead and the knife is headed for your throat you will realize that economics is actually not that important at all.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    45. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by gorzek · · Score: 1

      Exactly right. These programs encourage pigs to line up at the trough and suck the money down as quickly as possible so they can get more. Is there something wrong with starting with a realistic set of requirements (with milestones), a firm budget, and a deadline?

      If one private company did this to another, it would be a disaster--I've seen that happen. But when you bilk the government (read: taxpayers) you get another round of cash. It's unreal.

    46. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by joocemann · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The overall spending on weapons development HAS gotten out of hand, all proxies by which the taxes are blown included.

      When one missile costs the same as a budget for an elementary school for a year, we've got a few problems:
      1) The 'competition' for contracts is not real, and thus we are paying too much for too little from these few contractors we always use.
      2) The sum of projects for future weapons is far too expensive, with too many weapons being produced despite 1000:1 KDRs (I served, and everyone who has served knows how dominant our military is, and has been, even compared to 1st world armies).
      3) Too many weapons are being used -- by that I mean the 'benefit' we wish to garner in our EXPENSE toward many of our current conflicts that our tax pool could be much better appropriated to help the people in general (those who filled the tax pool).

      Military spending is Socialism. Taxes fund socialism, and that's exactly what taxes do. And I think you'd be hard pressed to find any significant number of 'socialist' minded people (those labeled as such for their expressed interest in funding other types of programs, like infrastructure, communications, health, and science research) in the USA that would think we need to raise taxes; rather MOST people arguing in the sense that is labeled 'socialist' are arguing that the tax pool be directed somewhat more effectively to the benefit of the people. Thus, when military industrial complex spending (not DoD or pentagon budget) is at 1.4 TRILLION per year, and this F35 program alone costs $300 BILLION http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/04/21/hackers-infiltrate-pentagons-300-billion-fighter-jet-project/ , people are wondering why the $8BN budget for the NSF is facing cuts, despite national funding of science being a major player in human benefit.

      If the amount of waste in any specific facet of social spending (taxes) were to determine how often you talked about that waste, nearly everyone, nearly every time, would be talking about military industry spending. I'm looking at articles that people are attracted to about $15 muffins that the DOJ bought and costed something like $12 million.... $12 million SEEMS like a lot of money to you or I, and so we are attracted... But thats a fart in the wind compared to the massive turd of BILLIONS or TRILLIONS being spent. 12 billion is a THOUSAND TIMES MORE WASTEFUL than 12 million. Paying attention at all to the muffins is a massive distraction (albeit justified) from what really matters. Like I said, if the proportion of the amount wasted, per topic, determined the conversation about waste, we would largely only talk about military spending budget cuts.

    47. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Richard_at_work · · Score: 1, Informative

      Nope, the grounding order was raised across the fleet a few weeks ago - however, no resolution was found for the problems that caused the grounding in the first place. And a base specific grounding occured shortly after the return to flight, after one commander decided the risk was too much.

    48. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They're called sunk costs and should be forgotten. Or else you end up with the "well we spent this much already, lets keep going!" Deal you mentioned... rather than forgetting the costs from X years ago and looking at where you are, how the project fits, and scrapping if its all screwed up.

    49. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by gplus · · Score: 1

      The F-35 is a strike fighter. Its job is to blow up various ground targets, and it does this better than the F-22. Again, that is its mission and what it was built to do.

      And yet the F-35 is supposed to replace the F-16 on the export market. So many of America's allies are supposed to use this extremely expensive, dedicated bomber/strike-aircraft, as their primary self defense/air defense assert?

    50. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by DarkOx · · Score: 1

      Axing the project and starting afresh would set everything back, and be tremendously expensive - so the F35 project has to work at this point, cost overruns or not.

      That is not the right way to look at it. The question is not how far behind are we already, or what have we already spent. Time and money once used are gone you can't get them back. The valid questions are:
      Do we still need the project?
      Can we finish the project for less time, less money or both, than starting over with the benefit of the knowledge we have now?
      If we start over and make some different choice is any of the work done so far salvageable for the new project?

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    51. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by T-Bone-T · · Score: 1

      The A-10 was designed to get close to tanks and blow them up with a gun. It has to fly low and slow to accomplish the mission. Why do that when you can fly above an enemy's defenses and drop a bomb or fire a missile? We've already demonstrated that a bomb can hit a moving target and some bombs can be dropped from 15 miles away or more. There is no need for an A-10 these days when something else can kill tanks without risking itself in the process.

    52. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by IceNinjaNine · · Score: 2

      The F-35 is a strike fighter. Its job is to blow up various ground targets, and it does this better than the F-22. Again, that is its mission and what it was built to do.

      The F-35 is an overpriced piece of shit. I'd rather have the Strike Raptor or some Silent Eagles and maybe some more Super Hornets for the Navy. The *one* customer I could see throwing a fit would be the USMC who might take exception that being saddled with the VTOL Harrier for another decade or so. There were and are better options out there; the F-35 is pork, pure and simple. In addition, I really like how we pissed off a tier-1 ally (the UK) by intimating for awhile that source code for various on-board systems would not be forthcoming. What a way to treat a friend! (I know, I know, nations don't have "friends".. only interests.. but still... )

    53. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by T-Bone-T · · Score: 2

      Yes. That's how it works. We build cool shit and less-cool shit and keep the cool shit and share the less-cool shit.

    54. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by afidel · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Will the Army let them? The last time the Air Force talked about abandoning the A-10 the Army threatened to restart the Army Air Corps so there would be someone to fly the tubs. Supersonic fighters dropping bombs from 10k feet isn't exactly the same role as the A-10.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    55. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by cavreader · · Score: 4, Interesting

      That's why the US isn't selling F-22's to anyone. No doubt the F-35 shares a great deal of tech with F-22 but the F-22 advanced and integrated computer capabilities are better than anything you will see in the F-35. The F-22 is most likely the last manned fighter the US will ever build as warfare as migrates towards the unmanned aircraft doctrine. Unless some type of inertial damping system is developed the F-22 has already surpassed the limits of what a human pilot can endure. I have aways wondered if the US went to war with a country we have sold advanced fighter jets and missiles systems to how would the fight come out? I have a strong suspicion that the first time someone tried to lock on to a US fighter with an F-15 we sold them might end up seeing their missile loop back around and start targeting them or just plain misfire. The US black boxes most of the internal tech in their advanced weapon systems and requires all replacement parts and certain maintenance tasks to be overseen by US technicians. The sales contracts also include an inspection provision that allows the US to periodically inspect any of the weapon systems they have sold to the customer. After all what's the big deal since we are all good buddies and faithful allies. Why would anyone object to this requirement? The country manufacturing advanced weaponry for sale would be foolish in the extreme if they did not attempt to make sure the weapons couldn't be used on them. The French sold out Argentina against the British during the Falken Island war by giving England the flight control comm frequency and crypto keys to neutralize the Exocet missiles Argentina had purchased from France. It's not a very big secret that Thatcher contacted the French president at the time requesting the missile codes and making all kinds of subtle threats about what would happen if those codes were not immediately forthcoming. Argentina was sinking British ships with little effort and then suddenly they stopped using the Exocet's. And they didn't run out of them and the British certainly couldn't have stopped them with the equipment they had on hand. The British ships were very vulnerable to the Exocet attacks. The Tornadoes and ship defenses at that time were certainly not capable of shooting down an Exocet.

    56. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by brit74 · · Score: 1

      In the book "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army", they talk about how the Bush White House was very interested in doing a lot more outsourcing of combat operations to private companies. It sounded to me like they were big believers in the old libertarian mantra of "the private sector always does it better and more efficiently than the government" and then applying that principle to the US military. And, of course, private military contractors and the lobbyists are more than happy to reaffirm that belief. The fact that Blackwater's owner - who was both rich and politically active - had long-standing ties to the Republican party probably played a big role.

    57. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Dishevel · · Score: 0

      Not saying that it is worth it but the F-25 will get to the target much faster than an A-10 will.
      I personally think the A-10 is an almost perfect platform for ground attack.
      But the F-35 will do a few things better.

      --
      Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
    58. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by gknoy · · Score: 1

      True, but that doesn't help us when our goal (as a country) is to maintain a technologically advanced fighting force. Finding out in 10 years that company X failed doesn't help us, esp when there are often competing programs from the small pool of defense contractors which also fail.

    59. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The F-35 is a 5th generation fighter. It is entirely capable of handling air defense, it just wouldn't do it as well as a Raptor. Stealth and some rather advanced electronic doohickeys conspire to make it a very dangerous air to air opponent.

      Just because an aircraft is purpose built to fill a role doesn't mean it can't take on another one - it just won't be as good at it as a purpose built aircraft. But it might be good enough, or better than good enough at it for your particular situation anyway.

    60. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by afidel · · Score: 2

      Any barbarians invading the US mainland are going to have one hell of a time given the fact that there are something like 1.1 guns for every man, woman and child in the US, far outstripping places where the worlds largest and most well funded military has been bogged down for a decade.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    61. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      It costs more, it is less able to deal with changing situation on the ground etc. You sound like those Vietnam era generals that left the guns off the F4 since dogfighting was dead.

    62. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by gorzek · · Score: 1

      There's also the notion that you can't put a price tag on national security--we should spend whatever it costs to meet our defense objectives, no matter how expensive and regardless of the actual return we get. Somehow, that got warped into meaning we can spend an unlimited amount of money on the military and its contractors, and to criticize that at all is unpatriotic.

      I'm not convinced that we need to spend anywhere near what we're spending to have an effective military. But the problem isn't what we pay the soldiers or what we spend on their essential field equipment, it's these huge, pie-in-the-sky defense contracts where no one is held accountable and the flow of money is virtually guaranteed.

    63. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can't speak for NASA or aircraft, but the Navy most certainly used to build its own ships and boats - The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine built submarines for 80ish years, and only in the last 20 have they stopped building boats and switched to only repair, refuel and refurb.

    64. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      With the absolutely ludicrously massive military budget, they can cut their own damn grass. Hell, for the hundreds of billions of dollars, they'd better be able to invent something to teleport everything except the bottom inch of grass into a pile somewhere.

    65. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by DerekLyons · · Score: 1

      find the level of contracting with anything military to be very troubling these days. I remember back in the 80's when bases began contracting out things like food services. Okay, that seemed pretty reasonable. But I recently went back to an old base that I had once been stationed at back in the day and being shocked by how far this has really gone. Not only were food services, the PX, laundries, etc. run by civilians--but so was base *security*. Instead of MP's greeting me at the gate, it was a bunch of rent-a-cops.

      You must have grown up around the Army - the Navy has outsourced those since the 70's or even before.
       
      Things like the Exhange, etc.. aren't run by traditional contractors however, but by a private company chartered by the Navy. The same goes for the guards at the gate - they aren't rent-a-cops, but DoD civilians. (But where it does matter, like the weapons magazines up the road from me, the gyrenes still guard the gates.)
       
      All the services pretty much have to nowadays, because they're only allotted so many people in uniform by Congress and those non-mission billets eat up a lot of bodies.
       

      NASA that can't even build a rocket anymore without a Lockheed or Boeing to do all the work for them.

      NASA has never built it's own rockets. Even the stuff that was designed in house had the actual R&D, engineering, and manufacturing done by the contractor.

    66. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you put in 20 years you get a pension equal to 50% of your last paycheck, or at 40 years you get 100%. Soæ you can start drawing a pension at age 38 and if you live to 90

      you'll be getting next to nothing, because of inflation.

    67. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by PPGMD · · Score: 1

      I was first really shocked about military outsourcing when I saw a photo of L. Paul Bremner III, the proconsul for Iraq, being guarded by a group of Blackwater people.

      How on earth is this justified - forget the question of allegiance and loyalty, outsourcing has got to cost more than using your own troops.

      What happens now seems to be
      - USG invests hunderds of thousands or millions of dollars in training for 1334 soldiers and pays them a civil service salary
      - Mercenary corp hire them and pays them double their salary
      - USG contracts Mercenary corp, and gets its own soldiers back and four times the price and one quarter the loyalty.</p></quote>

      <p>The US military isn't really trained for PSD work. Blackwater and other contracting companies takes Special Forces soldiers and trains them specifically for the PSD missions that they do for the state department.</p>

      <p>Now the US military could train some of it's soldiers for PSD missions, but they already have a shortage of Special Forces soldiers.</p>

    68. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by sourcerror · · Score: 1

      The Strike raptor is just a design proposal so far, so I don't see how it's an alternative. OTOH the F-35 has 13 prototype crafts. (Silent Eagle has only 1.)

    69. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's part of the ploy to show that the "size of government" is being reduced. Contractors don't count as employees. So, the government can claim to be employing fewer people on a technicality.

    70. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

      What I found telling was when the OZ government ran a test comparing the SU Series (the 27 and up I believe) the MiG 29 and 31, all the American teen series still being produced, and the F22 and F35. I believe one can find it under "F35 red flag tests" on YouTube, kinda in the middle of work so I don't have time to Google.

      The results were BOTH the F22 and F35 as well as the teen series were spanked and spanked HARD by the Sukov and to a lesser degree by the MiG. IIRC the most telling part of the report went "In our tests the F35 is a disaster. it can't outgun, outfight, or out maneuver the aircraft it will most likely have to face. in combat it would be a dead duck".

      So it kinda reminds me of what Japan and Germany had in WWII, only worse. At least the Germans had superior designs, they were simply too costly, while the Japanese had designs that were quickly outclassed and never could catch up. With our current fleet the teen series (F15, 16, 18) simply can't compete head to head with the MiG and Sukov while costing twice as much based on fly away costs, while the F22 and F35 aren't a match while being insanely over priced. So the future enemy will have tons of cheap fighters while we will have REALLY expensive turkeys.

      Maybe we should just ask Putin to sell us the MiG and Sukov? Hell we've outsourced everything else, might as well go ahead and go full out. At least the miG and Sukov would be a hell of a lot cheaper while still giving us good aircraft, all the F35 is gonna do is make a shitload of MIC contractors rich as sin!

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    71. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by imgod2u · · Score: 1

      Aside from the problem of lobbyists, a big difference between DoD projects and private companies is that you have very few (hell, if any) private companies with enough cash reserves to do one of these projects. The private sector has very few "here's the money, now promise with sugar on top that you'll spend it wisely" type of contracts. Generally, you build something using your own cash (or venture capital/IPO funding) and then sell it. A ~$66 billion project is something even Apple can't fund out of pocket, let alone smaller manufacturing companies.

      So we're left with the problem of how you can reign in costs if you have to give said contractor money just to start research. You can't be overzealous with auditing as that has negative effects on results; they'll be too busy keeping records and artificial metrics that they will spend less time doing the actual R&D. But on the other hand you can't just let engineers/managers run wild with an unlimited budget.

      And at the end of it, if they're late, you can't just cut them off because that would mean you've thrown all the money you've given them away.

    72. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Lemmy+Caution · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Um, I'm being critical of the absolute reliance on economic values, for one thing. Though considering how over-the-top and melodramatic your speculations are, it's unsurprising that the critical tone of my post went past you.

      You're wearing camouflage right now, as you read posts on the internet, aren't you?

    73. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by hairyfeet · · Score: 2, Insightful

      But for that mission wouldn't we be better off with just building more warthogs? I've seen A-10s with frankly insane levels of damage that come home, and when you are ground pounding that is what you are gonna need if you are expecting anything worse than goat herders. The A-10 can carry plenty of weaponry, take insane amounts of punishment and is affordable. We can use the B-2s to take out radar before sending in the hogs, might as well get our money out of those suckers.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    74. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by imgod2u · · Score: 1

      Problem is, they've already spent the money both on internal equipment and people's salaries. Even if you liquidate the company, you're not very likely to get even half of that money back and you'll put thousands out of the job. Granted it's probably jobs they should've never had, but still, politically, it's rather impossible to do.

    75. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Gilmoure · · Score: 1

      If y'all get a chance, watch Pentagon Wars. It's about the development of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. Will make you either puke or cry in rage.

      --
      I drank what? -- Socrates
    76. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 1

      This is the real world. All projects, of every size, of every type, run by every organization, are much more likely to be over budget and behind schedule than not.

      If you're the one magic "non idiot" on this planet who can always get projects approved and completed on time and under budget, then I suggest you start a management consulting firm. You'll surely make $Billions.

    77. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by MedBob · · Score: 4, Interesting

      They are even "Contracting Out" the Active Duty job.

      The National Guard is supposed to be a Civilian force to be utilized by State Governors and as a ready backup source of emergency troop reinforcements. It's designed to harbor a large number of trained individuals who can back up the Active Duty force which is tasked with performing the operational mission.

      As it stands now, the Pentagon calls more and more upon National Guard forces for deployment into combat zones. That has the advantage of reducing the number of Active Duty military, and that makes the politicos happy. "See, we've reduced the size of the military!" Nada. You have reduced the size of the workload by sharing it with people that are engaged with private industry, to the detriment of the industries/businesses who must do without a trained and productive leader for gigantic spans of time (90-180 days+). Could this possibly contribute to a business problem that expands the recessionary tendencies? Do we need some kind of "study" to reinforce the common sense on that?

      We need to "right size" the mission to the Active Duty force that we have, or "right size" the Active Duty force to the mission at hand and leave the National Guard forces as a reserve force to deal with the inevitable coming day when the defecation hits the rotary oscillator.

      Oh... and BTW.... The proper mission of our military is to kill people and blow things up. It needs to be an awesome and deadly force to be unleashed upon our enemies with fearsome and deadly precision and effect. If people anywhere near our sworn enemies move quickly away from them because death is likely to reign down from the sky at any moment, then we will have achieved the intended life-saving effect.

    78. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by crow_t_robot · · Score: 1

      "Too big to fail?"

    79. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

      That is why we need to use the bounty system. We say "Here is what we want, here is how much we will pay, GO!" and let them fight it out. It has become too much a good old boys club, with senator kickbackus and congressman porkus getting their palms greased and "bringing home the bacon" no matter how worthless the final project is.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    80. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by ZeroExistenZ · · Score: 2

      and the engineers will walk away if they're not paid

      A government, or any "large coorporation" renting "talent" acts as a milk-cow. Often alot of money is burned in "processes" which are in place and have become too rigid to operate ^properly without outside influence: you have your internal taskforce doing jobprotection and learning progressively how to avoid to work too hard

      Whenever you contract a firm you can put in conditions as penalties. I've seen large firms burn cash in their "penalty period", with teams working day and night for months in order to get prestige (resumé of the company) and often to be selected for follow-up projects. so they weigh the cost against the benefit.

      Some projects will go easy and they will be overbilled. Others will burn alot of resources but get carried with the buffer of overbilled projects and secure the future.

      For clients this means, they have some "sort of guarantee". If the contractor overestimates his own capacity (buffer cash, their internal talent, projections, ...) or made a proposition to cut short in order to eliminate competing contractors.. They go broke and default.

      So the conclussion is; both parties take risk and try to negotiate to limit the risk and to present themselves capable to reduce risk to a minimum. To ensure this, you will have lenghty contracts. In time of excess and big budgets, people will be less cautious and take more space as there is no need to tighten things up as it allows.

      --
      I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
    81. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by HeckRuler · · Score: 1

      Along comes Congress, and they want to, in the name of votes, drawdown the number of uniforms on active duty.

      Whoa whoa whoa, let me fix that for you:

      Along comes Congress, and they want to, because they're contractually obligated by the Iraqi government (a contract which was signed by Bush btw), drawdown the number of uniforms on active duty.

      The end goal here is to stop pissing away money in a nation we never should have conquered in the first place. Part of that is to get the Iraqi government (and their military) to police their own lands. Part of that is the draw down of our own troops.

      I'd rather we didn't have a US office in Kabul. Support the troops, bring them home.

    82. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, the Navy was the WORLD's number one investor in science and technology for many years, and owned it's own shipyards and equipment. It's only in the last 15-20 years that most of the material was turned over to contractors...

    83. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Luckyo · · Score: 2

      That is a very silly claim. A fighter bomber is always going to look like a "jack of all trades" to the uninformed. The advantages of it over pure fighter or pure attack plane are extremely obvious to the informed however.

    84. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by clodney · · Score: 1

      There's also the notion that you can't put a price tag on national security--we should spend whatever it costs to meet our defense objectives, no matter how expensive and regardless of the actual return we get.

      And yet many of those same people gloat how the Reagan buildup of the 80s pushed the Soviets over the edge and ruined their economy, to the point where the USSR fell apart.

      So apparently there is a point where you are spending too much.

      To your second point, I was surprised to read recently that personnel costs - wages, retirement, and health care, are a very large and rising part of the Pentagon budget, to the point where they are starting to resist congressional calls for additional benefits to the troops, since they result in actuarial disasters down the road.

    85. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Luckyo · · Score: 2

      Frankly, that's false. A-10 is among other things a close support aircraft. It can do a lot of quick hit and runs, can identify targets visually if needed and it's slow enough to support convoys efficiently.

      Not so with F-35. These are just two very different beasts.

    86. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 1

      This is the way it *SHOULD* be you dumbass statist. Only the PRIVATE sector can do things reliably, consistently, and with absolute dedication to quality and affordability through innovation and the invisible hand of the free market. The government (as we all know from all the stories on slashdot) is incompetent in everything it does, why woul dyou want national security handled by people whos only interest is the size of their fat cat union backed paycheck?

      Poe's Law in action: I honestly can't tell if this post is serious or satire. In the latter case, AC, congratulations on getting it so pitch-perfect.

      --
      The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
    87. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      Money back will not happen. A contract with such a demand would simply not be accepted, because they would know that they can't deliver.

      And people who are fully paid for by the company who are giving them these contracts wouldn't stand for it anyway. Where else will they get their kickbacks?

    88. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      And now, let's think WHY they have a "shortage of special forces soldiers"...

      Yeah.

    89. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      I think you should drop beating around the bush and blame the North. Slave workforce would have been so much more efficient, yet those dicks actually fought against it and won.

      Unamerican bastards!

    90. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      This is nothing but an indictment of the idiots in charge of the project, since if projects of that type ALWAYS go over budget, it was as predictable before the project started as it was in hindsight, and therefore should have been accounted for in the budget projections.

      Nope. Since time is money, it follows that f(T) = f(M). Therefore it's simply an application of Hofstadter's law.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    91. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      That's why there's Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA). Witness all the retirees bitching about the lack of a COLA in the last two years because the economy's been in the shitter. Many of these retirees also work for defense contractors and pull in huge salaries because of their deep and long connections to the military.

      That's not to say life after the military is all roses. The military is now really starting to screw their own, VA benefits are increasingly difficult to get, doctors are more than happy to label PTSD a simple "adjustment disorder", cutting wounded warriors off from help they desperately need and ultimately dumping them on the streets. 23% of the homeless are veterans.

      Meanwhile top brass go to work for Boeing or Lockheed or Raytheon or BAE and sell fancy weapons systems that we don't need with money we don't have.

    92. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      The very term "strike fighter" means that it's a jack of all trades - planes that are supposed to handle only air-to-ground missions are called "bombers" or "ground assault aircraft" (Russian has a good word for this, "shturmovik"). A fighter, by definition, is a plane that's intended to take out other planes. A "strike fighter" is a plane that can both take other planes, and hit ground targets, with reasonable efficiency either way. That's exactly what jack of all trades means.

    93. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      the problem is that govt workers, and their unions, can't face the fact that their employers cannot afford these type of benefits any longer. you can cry about waste and corruption but the fact is governments /are/ going bankrupt.

      this is happening in our city govt as well ... fire and police pensions are killing the city. so, instead of agreeing to reduce benefits and keep their jobs, the jobs are getting outsourced (or cut) completely.

      i mean really, sorry folks, but we're in a recession. the rest of us are having a hard time of it and tightening our belts ... why do govt workers think they untouchable?

    94. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 3, Informative

      A-10 is a very good plane at what it does - it's the American modern IL-2, essentially - but its role is primarily close air support for ground forces. As such, it is intended to hit high-priority point targets, scoring individual kills, while within effective range of pretty much all AA weaponry one can think of (including various improvised stuff). That's precisely why its main weapon is a Gatling cannon - perfect for those precision strikes. In contrast, its bomb load is very meager, so it's not the right kind of plane for bombing missions.

    95. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by sphealey · · Score: 2

      > I believe weapons development of this type was always done by contractors. NASA never built rockets, the Navy never
      > built ships and the Army/Air Force never built planes.

      Both the US Navy and the Army built airplanes in the 1910-194x time period, and did so in part so that they could stay on top of manufacturing technology and costing to allow better management of contracted production. I believe the Navy has also built its own ships from time to time for the same reason, and it certainly maintained very large design bureaus through at least the 1970s which did much of the research, engineering, design, and project management of ship construction.

      sPh

    96. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is incredibly short sighted. You think that because people are not employed by the government, they are shot a bullet in the head when they are not needed for government work anymore? Guess what, this is not the case, and they will have to get their retirement financed a way or another (or just work to death, we are talking about united states after all), and if not directly financed it will be just indirectly financed, except that in the later case there will be intermediaries doing nothing but legally stealing a part of the money, which will eventually result in the retired getting less money, the public spending more, or even probably both.

    97. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Chris+Burke · · Score: 1

      I have a hard time believing that just because the SU-27 is a 4th generation, non-stealth fighter, a rough equivalent to the F-15. And both F-22 and F-35 have a ridiculously high kill ratio against our own 4th generation fighters in war games. I could believe the Sukov was better than other 4th generation fighters but...

      Oh, I see. It was a computer simulation. And it was SU-35 vs F-35, with no F-22s involved. And there's a political battle going on in the background over whether or not the F-35 is sufficient. Yeah.

      Maybe it's like the other Gee-we-really-need-the-F-22 computer-simulated "war game" cooked up by a think tank I read about, where they had woefully underestimated the F-35's flight performance. They'd made it seem as if an F-16 would fly circles around it and only the new technologies could hope to make a difference. Whereas the actual chief test pilot for the F-35s, who had also flown F-22s and F-16s, said the F-35 had amazing flight characteristics -- equal to the F-16 in most respects, slightly behind in some and ahead in others. Unlike the F-16, it kept those characteristics with a combat loadout.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    98. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Beeftopia · · Score: 1

      Follow the money. Big contractors can't contribute TO politicians if they don't get the money FROM the politicians in the first place.

    99. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by mabhatter654 · · Score: 1

      Well that's simple really. Why OWN slaves to run a factory? That's dangerous work and work-ending injurys were common. Imagine the losses of you still had to pay for that person or lose the money you spent by putting them down.

    100. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by gujo-odori · · Score: 1

      However, military salaries are really low compared to the civil "servant" civilian government employees and their fatter pensions and very fat salaries. Base pay for an O6 with 25 years of service appears to be in the low six figures, and how many of those are there? Not a lot, really.

      Compare that to civilian government employees. In San Jose, California, the public list of employees and salaries has about 6,000 names on it. I went through about 1/3 of the list without finding anyone who made less than $100,000 last year. THAT is where we have a problem; not with paying for military pensions.

    101. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by sphealey · · Score: 1

      > Heck, the Army never built and supplied the guns, Jeeps, etc
      > that they utilized.

      Ah, you might want to google "Rock Island Arsenal" and read up a bit on its history. That's just one among many. And while much of that work was contracted out, even in the early days (by which I mean starting with the Continental Congress), there was also the principle of doing much key work and some volume work in-house to maintain the knowledge that is crucial for successful outsourcing.

      sPh

    102. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by dkleinsc · · Score: 2

      Somehow, that got warped into meaning we can spend an unlimited amount of money on the military and its contractors, and to criticize that at all is unpatriotic.

      Yeah, someone should tell all those people about this totally military-hating unpatriotic coward who became president.

      --
      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    103. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      No, I'm sitting in my shorts here in the tropics. But I can't help but have a pessimistic outlook for the US.The leaders of the so called "free world" are lost, lost lost. There was a time that the circus was part of it. Now it's all about the circus.

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    104. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Given that the Tornado did not fly until several years after the Falklands War, one has to wonder about the accuracy of the rest of your post...

    105. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey now, they don't do everything. Soldiers get to do all the fighting and dieing, and for much less per hour!

      -GiH

      Of course they get paid less per hour. I mean come on; how hard is it really to just die? Why, I could easily do it right n

    106. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Not a lot of countries can afford to build pure air to air fighters. The US can.

      That's debatable.

    107. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by PPGMD · · Score: 1

      Lets see long difficult training pipeline with a high washout rate, and not a huge poll of talent while keep quality high. Lack of buy in by the normal military, so even before contracting there weren't enough SF available. Combined with high rate tempo high risk deployments with high causality rates. Really even without contracting it is unlikely that we would have enough, particularly if we had to dedicate quite a number for PSD missions.

      Honestly it isn't perfect, but contracting out the State department's specialty non-direct combat jobs, allowed it the DOD to free up a limited pool of SF soldiers for direct combat roles.

    108. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by bryan1945 · · Score: 1

      Another fun part of contracting stuff out (I used to do some contract work for the gov) is how much freaking paperwork, meetings, and partial demos are required. Those are 3 of the many inefficient things the gov is good at. If you can't show paperwork to your boss, you're obviously doing nothing. If you're not having weekly meetings (even if a deliverable is not due for 3 months), you obviously not working on it. If you can't have a dog and pony "demo" (i.e. some graphics/CGI vids showing what will eventually happen), you're obviously just spending the money on beer and hiring hookers.

      All that crap leaves about 20 hours a week to actually do something. I think I hit a low when I sent a regular report in, and someone on the list sent it back telling me it needed line numbers, where I should indent, wanting changes on the size of the graphs, telling me how to label such graphs, where italics were supposed to be used, etc. Best part- not a word on the content of the report. For a general monthly report. Must have been a new guy, since my previous 5 or so were fine.

      --
      Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
    109. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      FYI, fucking balls is called 'plocking' in East Germany, as in 'das frau ist ein plocking konigin!'

    110. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Military pay and pensions are only "fat" when measured against the fact that most Americans have had those things stolen from them. Anything is immensely bigger than nothing, I suppose. I just love how our answer to this is to get angry at anyone who still has what everyone should have rather than to fight to get it back. Self destructive crap. I would rather have the money go to a human being who will spend it in his or her local community than to a contracting megacorp which as likely as not will take the profits out of the country.

    111. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by meglon · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately it's this type of archaic thinking to believe any country would want to physically invade or occupy us, that keeps us wasting vast amounts of money on useless shit for "defense." Per person, Switzerland has more weapons in the hands of it's population than we do, yet it hasn't been in a war in over 600 years. We not only need to change our entire idea of "defense," but also this "must be a macho dumbshit" mentality that our kids are skullfucked into believing.

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    112. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by dbIII · · Score: 1

      F-22 has already surpassed the limits of what a human pilot can endure

      The 1936 Caproni Ca.161 Biplane surpassed the limit of what a human pilot can endure :)
      Yes I know you meant G-forces more than a pilot in a pressure suit can endure and it's a good point.

    113. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by lennier · · Score: 1

      Wait until the barbarians show up at the gates - you know, the ones that don't give a damn about your sestertii, your circuses and your plumbing.

      Indeed. However, the problem is that historically speaking, the barbarians who showed up at Rome's gates were the guys they'd just outsourced their military to.

      Oops.

      --
      You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
    114. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by cavreader · · Score: 1

      Sorry I meant "Harriers". However, even the first generation of Tornadoes would have been no more effective in countering the Exocet threat at the time. The lack of a viable Exocet defense combined with the Brits half assed deployment efforts almost resulted in their defeat. In comparison to today that entire war would have lasted about 15 minutes. A couple B-2 sorties armed with JDAMS and area denial ordinance would have did the job and when they were done they could have immediately returned to their US bases.

    115. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by lennier · · Score: 1

      If forced to, they'd do stuff like give/sell off the profitable bits and have their Crony Corporations now charge fees, tolls, rent instead (of taxes).

      Ah, I see you were in New Zealand during the 1984 Lange/Douglas government. We did all that, it was lots of fun! The phone company became Telecom and jacked up prices while exporting all its profits offshore. NZ Rail was run into the ground until eventually the NZ people bought it back, a skeleton, for more than they'd paid. Air NZ went belly up and had to be bailed out. We'd already be exporting our dirty-burning coal to China to pollute their crops if the darn mine hadn't exploded and caught fire.

      Good times, good times. And it's coming back in fashion again, if John Key gets his way in November. ("But he's got such a nice smile, not like that Helen Clark who had a deep voice and was a woman!")

      --
      You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
    116. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by mbkennel · · Score: 1

      "The F-35 is a strike fighter. Its job is to blow up various ground targets, and it does this better than the F-22. Again, that is its mission and what it was built to do."

      If you can take off from a paved airfield, the F-22 is better at blowing up ground targets than the F-35. Most prominently it has so much more powerful engines that it can supercruise (F-35 can't) and go there, bomb and back, with a substantially smaller turnaround time than the F-35. And while on the way it's way better at evading SAM and air threats.

    117. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by theshowmecanuck · · Score: 2

      From the beginning the Lockheed Martin design was overly complex and at risk of going way over budget. The Boeing submission was simpler and just as capable, but didn't have the sleek "cool" look of a conventional jet combat aircraft. I watched a documentary about the selection process, and was disappointed but not surprised at the way they selected Lockheed Martin. I think they would already have the Boeing entry in operation by now if they chose it. As an example, at least in the initial design, the LM version uses a separate fan for the VTOL capability, requiring a power take off shaft and clutch from the main engine to power it; as opposed to a simpler vectored thrust arrangement in the Boeing submission. Just this one feature was telling for me. It says to me that the LM product is over engineered and over complex. Not a good thing in a combat vehicle. Too many things in an already complex system to go wrong.

      --
      -- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
    118. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by fnj · · Score: 1

      I believe weapons development of this type was always done by contractors. NASA never built rockets, the Navy never built ships and the Army/Air Force never built planes.

      The Army and Navy did build significant numbers of airplanes in earlier days. For example the Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia built at least 15 models of planes and designed many of these. They also fabricated the girders for the rigid airship Shenandoah, which was assembled at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station.

      The Charlestown Navy Yard/Boston Naval Shipyard/Boston Navy Yard built 36 destroyers and 31 destroyer escorts from 1934 to 1955.

      Mare Island Naval Shipyard, 25 miles northeast of San Francisco, built at least 89 seagoing vessels, including two cruisers.

      Brooklyn Navy Yard/New York Naval Shipyard employed 70,000 workers during WWII and built scores of ships from 1817 to 1963, including 11 battleships and 8 aircraft carriers.

      Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, San Francisco Naval Shipyard, Long Beach Naval Shipyard, Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, and others built countless ships.

    119. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      its bomb load is very meager

      From wikipedia: 11 hardpoints with a capacity of 7,260 kg. You call that "meager"?
      The F-35 could only carry this amount of weapons externally, compromising its stealth and range. I guess it's not the right kind of plane for bombing missions either.

    120. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by X.25 · · Score: 1

      That is incorrect.

      The F-22 is a better aircraft at blowing other planes out of the sky. That is its mission, what it has been built for, and what it does. (Also, it is getting upgrades from F-35 tech developments. Fighters are always undergoing upgrades)

      The F-35 is a strike fighter. Its job is to blow up various ground targets, and it does this better than the F-22. Again, that is its mission and what it was built to do.

      It isn't worse than an F-22, it has a completely different mission - and yes, purpose built-aircraft /are/ better than other aircraft at fulfilling their purpose - that's why they get built. Not a lot of countries can afford to build pure air to air fighters. The US can.

      In other words, when you don't understand what you are talking about, talk about it like a kid would do?

    121. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      I'm not defending F-35 - it's not good in either role, really. But, for comparison, F-15E (which F-35 purports to replace) has a bomb load of 10 tons. And even that is meager compared to what a dedicated bomber can take.

    122. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by xaoslaad · · Score: 2

      The A-10C is a much upgraded variant of the original. And with the Lightening II pod and Mavericks it can hit targets like tanks from a decent range. It can perform CCIP and CCRP bombing too. It can get up close and blow a kiss goodbye at its target as it's blowing it to pieces, but it does not have to.

      Pretty decked out study sim if you want to get an idea of what it can do: http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/series/warthog/

      it is of course a sim, but about as detailed as you will find...

    123. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Spruce Goose. Not that recent, is it?

    124. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by arose · · Score: 1

      Nothing has changed. Humans still tend to look into the past with rose colored glasses and wonder how it all went wrong even (particularly?) when nothing has changed or, god forbid, has improved.

      --
      Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
    125. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      You are more or less correct. But the Redstone military arsenal made the Mercury rocket AFAIK but still some work was subcontracted out.

    126. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by cyn1c77 · · Score: 1

      the problem is that govt workers, and their unions, can't face the fact that their employers cannot afford these type of benefits any longer. you can cry about waste and corruption but the fact is governments /are/ going bankrupt.

      this is happening in our city govt as well ... fire and police pensions are killing the city. so, instead of agreeing to reduce benefits and keep their jobs, the jobs are getting outsourced (or cut) completely.

      i mean really, sorry folks, but we're in a recession. the rest of us are having a hard time of it and tightening our belts ... why do govt workers think they untouchable?

      Because they have a fucking contract with the US government! Unless the state or Fed is bankrupt, they don't get to just reneg on contracts. Just like private citizens are unable to.

      How would you like it if the US government appropriated your 401K retirement money because "the rest of us are having a hard time?" Or what if the bank just up and took your house just before you finished paying your mortgage off, because they needed the income?

      States should cut spending or layoff people if they need to save money. You don't shaft retirees who have spent their life working for you and now cannot get another job due to age.

    127. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Oxford_Comma_Lover · · Score: 1

      The F-22 is a better aircraft at blowing other planes out of the sky.

      I would be very impressed if it could do this from its hangar, because AFAIK the damned things are STILL grounded.

      The F-22 program was scrapped because it was very expensive and not necessary--nobody else in the world came close.

      The F-22 program was grounded because we don't need it at the moment--yes, there are safety issues they couldn't resolve, but if we actually really needed them to fly a mission, to hell with the grounding order, we'd order them to fly even though the safety risk is too high for the ROI that we get given present mission parameters.

      --
      -- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
    128. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by fearofcarpet · · Score: 1

      Thus, when military industrial complex spending (not DoD or pentagon budget) is at 1.4 TRILLION per year, and this F35 program alone costs $300 BILLION http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/04/21/hackers-infiltrate-pentagons-300-billion-fighter-jet-project/ , people are wondering why the $8BN budget for the NSF is facing cuts, despite national funding of science being a major player in human benefit.

      From gpoaccess.gov: The total spending on research from the US government in 2010 was 4.2% of total outlays. Of that 4.2%, 4% went to the NSF, 6% to NASA, 2% to Energy, 23% to NIH, and 57% to Defense. Spending on "Defense" is so far out of whack that even the small portion of federal spending allocated to research is dominated by the military. The entire budget for the NSF, which funds research from all disciplines of science, was about $8 billion. The budget for the Missile Defense Agency, which is funded through the DoD for the specific task of developing missile defense technologies was about $7 billion. I constantly see stories about how the US is investing in STEM, trying to produce more scientists and engineers, and creating a "green economy" by investing in sustainable energy, but these numbers tell a different story: that the US places the priority of war-making so much higher than anything else, that the military is tasked with deciding how the vast majority of taxpayer dollars are invested in basic research.

      --
      Actually, I wrote my thesis on life experience.
    129. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by rtfa-troll · · Score: 0

      You know; if you guys want something safe, efficient, probably even more flexible, and certainly lots cheaper I can arrange you a good bulk deal on some Eurofighter Typhoons. It's certainly a better fighter than the F35; probably about as good as the F22 in most real situations and whilst it doesn't do everything that the F35 and F22 do on paper, you might want to try the weird experiment of an actual flying aircraft which won't kill of all your own pilots... </bearbaiting>

      --
      =~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
    130. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Howitzer86 · · Score: 1

      An F-15 pilot wouldn't even see the F-22. As far as the pilot knows, their obsolete fighter would just suddenly explode and fall into the ocean. That's how far in advancement the new fighter is.

    131. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most contracts (like this one) are structured as cost plus labor.

      LM would have never bid so low under a fixed cost contract.

    132. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1) The 'competition' for contracts is not real, and thus we are paying too much for too little from these few contractors we always use.

      Not true. Lots of competition (specifically from Team Boeing on the X-35 program). IMHO, the real issues are:
      (1) Cost plus contracts.
      (2) Scope creep.
      (3) Government likely to choose the lowest bidder.

    133. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

      Which is why I mentioned the B-2 for taking out the radar, after that we can bring out the B-52 for any 'pile on the pounding" and use the A-10 for more precision strike.

      That sad part is the ONLY thing the F35 does really well is suck money, you can't load on the pounds without blowing its stealth, without the stealth its an easy target, it can't fight like a fighter, it can't bomb like a bomber. Frankly the whole stealth idea is pretty damned lame anyway. with modern HARM missiles anybody that points a radar at us is gonna be blown into the afterlife and the HARM is a hell of a lot cheaper than even the cheapest stealth, and for those rolls where it absolutely positively HAS to be stealth, whatever those rolls are, we have the B-2 and F22 just sitting there.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    134. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by gtall · · Score: 1

      Last I heard, the A10 was being upgraded with the idea of retiring them in the late 2020's. Someone at the Pentagon doesn't have their head up their ass.

    135. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by gtall · · Score: 1

      That makes no sense, the U.S. government doesn't decide to spend x on research and then make sure that Defense spends most of it. Rather, Defense has decided that research is vitally important to them and spends a fair amount on it. Your problem is with the rest of the money that Congress spends...or ratther Americans consume seeing as 2/3's of the government is entitlements. Go bark up another tree.

    136. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Teancum · · Score: 2

      For myself, I think restarting the Army Air Corps is a pretty good idea, at least in terms of making some aviation assets organic on the divisional level instead of having to request resources from a whole other branch of the military. Yes, I am aware of other parts of Army aviation, particular helicopter units.... which is where they were going to put the A-10 units if they ever got going again. Not into the helicopter units, but additional units organized along similar principles dedicated to the A-10.

      You are correct that the USAF had a cow over the idea, and even the mere suggestion that there would be real aviation assets in the U.S. Army was enough to force at least a doctrinal reorganization in the Air Force.

    137. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Teancum · · Score: 1

      It also didn't help that the British decided to build "light" ships with Aluminum and other metals instead of traditional steel construction in a fool hardy attempt to save fuel costs over combat survivability, and there were other problems that changed some of the designs for U.S. Navy ship that at the time were moving towards the concepts pioneered by the British and found to not really work in practice.

      Then again, you always learn all kinds of interesting lessons when you engage in actual combat vs. simulators and power point presentations trying to convince senior officers or even members of congress what should be done. Far too often the real battles over what gets built happen in the Capitol building (or Westminster in London).

    138. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by smash · · Score: 1

      Not a lot of countries can afford to build pure air to air fighters. The US can.

      Actually, one could argue the point that you can't afford shit lately, as you're broke due to decades of economic mis-management, going back to 2001 and prior. The only difference now is that the bean counters have run out of accounting tricks to hide the extent of the problem.

      --
      I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
    139. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by smash · · Score: 1

      I've seen A-10s with frankly insane levels of damage that come home, and when you are ground pounding that is what you are gonna need if you are expecting anything worse than goat herders.

      Does the US fight anyone worse than goat herders? Last couple of decades would indicate "no"....

      --
      I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
    140. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by smash · · Score: 1

      You're pretty misinformed:

      1. harms are all well and good against ground targets, but they're no good against fighters and particularly, AWACS who can vector swarms of fighters to you
      2. a number of the F35 systems are "classified". amongst them being directed energy weapons, 360 degree situational awareness via "sensor fusion", etc. on paper it isn't a rocket ship, but it doesn't need to be
      3. the f22 doesn't have energy weapons. it is not built to land on carriers, does not have the level of situational awareness, and is not built for ground attack

      Compared to current fighters, the F35 is no slouch. Couple that with the inevitable engine upgrades to improve power:weight, and I suspect it will hold its own in a similar manner to the F16 today.

      Yes, the F22 in ground attack configuration may be a theoretically superior aircraft. But it hasn't been built and was never built for carrier use, energy weapons, etc.

      --
      I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
    141. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Xest · · Score: 2

      Sorry but your analysis of the Falklands is almost completely wrong, the only true bit is "Thatcher contacted the French president at the time requesting the missile codes and making all kinds of subtle threats about what would happen if those codes were not immediately forthcoming.".

      It's certainly not the case that "Argentina was sinking British ships with little effort" either, they sank the HMS Sheffield - probably their biggest score of the battle, with an exocet, though it took some days before it finally sank. The Atlantic Conveyor was hit by two exocets, killing 12 sailors, but was still afloat and the decision was made to scuttle it by the Royal Navy as it wasn't worth towing back home for repair from all the fire damage by that point. HMS Glamorgan was hit by one but survived. By and large, the two ships the exocets caused to go under did so because of poor fire control practices on the ship rather than because the missile itself inherently damaged the boats enough to send them under, many believe the exocet that hit HMS Sheffield didn't even detonate, it was simply the fires that started onboard that gutted it.

      "And they didn't run out of them"

      This is false, this is exactly what happened for a number of reasons:
      - Political pressure against France by Britain stopped France selling them for some time limiting Argentina's supply
      - MI6 operations to act as weapons suppliers screwed up Argentina's attempts to find actual valid suppliers of exocet missiles, gutting their ability to find new supplies
      - Britain's harrier force (not Tornados) were effective in downing many Argentine aircraft, and destroying them on the ground, causing the loss of some exocets this way
      - Low flying sea king helicopters acted as decoys for the primitive tracking system of the exocet with some success making the missiles aim for the helicopter instead resulting in them missing the helicopter AND the ship
      - SAS missions crippled some eventual land based exocet capability

      Really, the technology capabilities then were still somewhat primitive, harrier pilots were still using guns to down some of the argentinian aircraft and you don't really see that now. It wasn't the great technology espionage victory you claim, more than anything it was down to very primitive, yet very succesful methods that thwarted the exocet threat - political pressure, military intelligence operations, destroying the missiles before they were even launched, and distracting them with helicopters.

      It probably really was the last serious war where technology wasn't such a massive factor and people's individual skill contributed much to win the day, after that we moved towards the first gulf war where stealth bombers and cruise missiles started to seriously change the game.

    142. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by smash · · Score: 1

      In a cold war when one participant has the reserve, fiat currency and can print their way out of any debt they incur, there can only be one "winner". However the USA is paying for those debts now, whilst the USSR fell apart and has recovered already.

      --
      I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
    143. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I see no issues (as I am British) in "leaning on the french" for excocet codes during the falklands war.

      We didnt have any Tornadoes at the time, Fleet air arm was made up of Sea Harriers, the Royal Navy has never used Tornadoes.

    144. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by cherokee158 · · Score: 1

      It is also intended to be a VTOL aircraft for the Marines, a carrier fighter for the Navy, and an export fighter for the RAF. It is expected to act as a fighter when it is not playing bomb truck. (A job the F/A-18 does very well already)

      The last time we tried to build a plane that versatile (that is, a design by committee), we ended up with the F-111, a disappointing aircraft about whom a USAF general once said "The only good thing about the F-111 was that the damn fool Russians went and copied it." (He was referring to the Su-24, an even more disappointing aircraft)

      The best planes are first and foremost good flying machines. If you have a good airframe and engine combination, you can get a plane to do a lot of different jobs by simply cramming different avionics and weapons in it. Witness the F-15E Strike Eagle. The F-4 Phantom. The Corsair. We had a really good flying machine in the Raptor. Economies of scale would have driven the price down if we hadn't abandoned the program in favor of the empty promises of the F-35. The JSF is NOT a good airframe. It has only one engine, which is normally slower but cheaper...but we contracted to two different suppliers to build two different versions, so it wasn't cheaper, and it is still slower. It uses a horrendously complex system to achieve VTOL flight, which should insure the mechanics are kept unhappy and cancel out any sortie rate benefits it should enjoy from being VTOL. It will not be able to remain stealthy while carrying a bomb load any larger than the Raptor. Since its primary role is bomb truck, and the greatest need for stealth is when approaching a target, there seems little point in suffering the expense of a stealth design on an aircraft that was supposed to be cheap. We are going to end up with a plane with one less engine and shorter range than the Navy likes, a VTOL hangar queen for the Marines, and a fighter-bomber for the USAF with the price tag of a Raptor and performance little better than the F-16.

    145. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by vaporland · · Score: 0

      that doesn't help us when our goal (as a country) is to maintain a technologically advanced fighting force.

      I believe the goal is to feed at the military-scientific-industrial complex money trough while 20% of our citizens go hungry.

      I'm stunned by the testosterone posturing on this thread. America needs more weapons like a fish needs a bicycle.

      I hope the "supercommittee" fails and the military budget is cut 20%. Won't happen but I wish it would.

      --
      Ask Me About... The 80's!
    146. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by fearofcarpet · · Score: 1

      First, I live in Europe, so my problem really isn't with American spending on entitlements; I happen to have these data on research spending available for something unrelated. Second, nowhere did I make the claim that congress allocates x for "research" and then makes sure that Defense spends most of it. However, almost every government does set a target for the percentage of total spending that goes towards research, say 4-5% for wealthy countries, and then adjusts accordingly when the budget reports come in, which is precisely why the US government can offer a spreadsheet summarizing all expenditures on research at gpoaccess.gov. Funding agencies prepare requests and justifications for a budget and the government uses those requests and guidelines, but the government will increase/decrease individual agencies to reflect national priorities and to keep the total spending on research in the target range.

      What is out of whack, is that Defense has so much money, that the small percentage that it breaks off for research dwarfs what the congress explicitly sets aside for NASA, NIH, Energy, and NSF. If the budget for Defense was suddenly cut by a large amount, its spending on research would drop proportionally, which means that to maintain the target 4-5% total spending on research, congress would have to increase the budgets of NASA, NIH, Energy, NSF, etc., or create a new funding agency. Such a move would keep the total amount of funding for research constant, but dramatically shift the priorities attached to that funding as it would be under the purview of agencies with different goals than Defense. Cutting spending anywhere else would not affect research spending other than decreasing overall spending which would reduce the actual amount of money that comprises 4-5% of the budget.

      My interest is only in how the priorities of the people are reflected in a nation's allocation of research spending. The distribution in the US suggests that war-making is a higher priority, by far, than all scientific research combined.

      --
      Actually, I wrote my thesis on life experience.
    147. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by TheLink · · Score: 1

      Nope wasn't in NZ during that time. But it's just obvious what will happen if:
      1) the politicians are a bunch who mainly care about themselves and their cronies, and
      2) the politicians aren't that stupid.

      So far I haven't had anyone point out flaws in my reasoning, they mostly keep saying "small is always better" like it's some sort of religious mantra. Or they don't/can't even read and understand my entire post (like the AC who replied to me) and so just make stupid replies.

      BTW, I think NZ should go GM-Free. Not because of religious reasons etc, but because your farms don't really need GM to compete (volcanic soil, mostly mild weather and all that). The idea is NZ maintains a "green, clean, nuke free, GM free" image and so in the future NZ can charge more for its products. Especially if there's some GM screw-up/scare ;),

      NZ folk who want to do GM stuff should go do it in other countries - e.g. do a "joint-venture" with Singapore or other.

      --
    148. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by cavreader · · Score: 1

      There wasn't any technology espionage. It was one country calling another to "negotiate" the situation. I am pretty sure the French president knew exactly who he was talking to and since this negotiation took place pretty much in the open it doesn't really qualify as "espionage". You say it was not easy for Argentina to inflict damage to British shipping and personnel then you turn around and state that they sunk one ship, hit and damaged a couple more which caused the British to scuttle one of the vessels and tow the damaged ship back to England for repairs. MI6 might have taken out any Exocet threat on the island but since 99% of the Exocet attacks were launched from aircraft based in Argentina proper I doubt they inflicted any significant damage. Only if the conflict had dragged on would the British have started targeting the military capability within Argentina itself and even then it would have taking Britain close to a year just to get the forces in place to attempt such an attack. Maybe Mi6 should have paid a little more attention before the war started instead of after it was over. The entire conflict was nothing more than a political distraction for a failing Argentinian government. Their politicians gambled that the British would not commit many resources for a war over an insignificant island. They also thought the US would intervene in the situation to prevent hostilities from escalating to open warfare. Obviously the politicians lost their bet. The US response to this particular conflict should serve as a blue print for today's global conflicts. Unless there is a direct and immediate threat to US interests they should just get out of the way and let the antagonists go at each other with a free hand. I am hard pressed to think of a single country that deserves even one US soldier's death in their defense.

    149. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by cavreader · · Score: 1

      As I said above I mistakingly used Tornadoes instead of Harriers. And there is certainly nothing wrong with one country leaning in a situation such as this war. However, I am surprised any country would trust the French when buying any of their weapon systems knowing the French would stab them in the back at the first opportunity. But evidently Mitterrand was intimidated by Thatcher. That woman had more balls than most of the leaders during that era.

    150. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >And they didn't run out of them
            This statement is not supported by several histories of the Falklands conflict that I have read.

    151. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The solution is to change retirement benefits so that they last only as long as your service lasted. Served 20 years? Then you get 20 years of retirement. Served 40 years? Then you get 40.

      This seems eminently fair and is unaffected by people living longer lifespans.

    152. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Xest · · Score: 1

      You've not really taken in a word I've said have you?

      Come back when your response has even the closest resemblance to anything I said, or you said originally for that matter.

      As an aside I'm not sure what you mean by this:

      "I am hard pressed to think of a single country that deserves even one US soldier's death in their defense."

      Almost all US military action in the last few decades has been offensive, I think most other countries would be glad if you kept the fuck out of their business so that they didn't have to kill your soldiers too.

    153. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by esmdr · · Score: 1

      SU is the abbreviation for Sukhoi, not Sukov (valid also for the parent).

    154. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by berashith · · Score: 1

      there is a pile of political capital in being able to state how many US troops arent in these places. They may be US trained, US paid and commanded, but they arent currently enlisted in any of the US armed forces.

    155. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by rufty_tufty · · Score: 1

      It's the difference between the semiconductor industry 's:
      "Here's this really cool thing we've built - will someone please buy it from us? No? It doesn't do everything you want, you want it gold plated? Sure, we can do that in 9 months if you'll promise to buy some. Cool, oh, you didn't sell as may as you thought, oh never mind; here's the next cool thing we've been working on"
      and
      "We want someone to design this for us, we want it beyond anything you've done before we don't know how difficult it will be, but here's a big pot of cash that might just do it. Oh, you mean you can't, you promise if we give you more money you'll be able to do it, cool, here's more money"
      Let the design companies set the specification and you can screw them, set it yourself and prepare for problems.

      What's the alternative though? The government could swap to the model of letting the defence companies lead the development rather than them (I believe this is how it used to work, WWII period UK had dozens of military plane companies with this model, but then a plane was some wood & canvas, some levers and a big engine*). Now I'm sure this is great for innovation, but perhaps not for end to end systems that you need on a modern battlefield where everything has to integrate and last for decades.
      Also who would loan these companies the billions needed to get a program off the ground? How would you get startups?

      * okay I exaggerate, but you get my point.

      --
      "The weirdest thing about a mind, is that every answer that you find, is the basis of a brand new cliche" -
    156. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by radtea · · Score: 1

      If you're the one magic "non idiot" on this planet who can always get projects approved and completed on time and under budget, then I suggest you start a management consulting firm.

      I'm neither magical nor alone: project scheduling and estimation are amongst the most straight-forward and simple things an engineer or project manager can do, and completing projects on schedule is not that hard given accurate estimates, including contingencies for the surprises.

      The problem is that for some reason many people believe that most projects being over time and budget is a reason to never do anything to improve the situation. It's like people were saying, "All buildings burn down! You're wrong to say we should stop using blow-torches and gasoline at the same time! No one can possibly do ANYTHING about it!"

      In the projects where I've been able to stick-handle accurate estimates past senior management, there has been no problem bringing them in on time and on budget. On the projects there senior management has said, "Your estimates are too long and high! The world will end if you don't bring the project in at $COST and $TIME" the project has gone "mysteriously" over time and budget, and the idiots have said, "OF course it has! Who could possibly expect anything different!" And equally mysteriously, the world has never ended.

      I've thought about management consulting: I ran my own successful software and scientific consultancy for many years, carefully selecting clients who weren't idiots. But I don't think management consultancy is likely to be all that lucrative for me, because organizations that are not run by idiots are already doing the very simple things required to bring projects in on time and under budget, whereas those that are run by idiots aren't about the listen to the likes of me, because they believe that every single project has to use gasoline and blowtorches, and as such unavoidably goes up down in flames.

      --
      Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
    157. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Chris+Burke · · Score: 1

      Woops, thanks.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    158. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      Because they have a fucking contract with the US government! Unless the state or Fed is bankrupt, they don't get to just reneg on contracts. Just like private citizens are unable to.

      great, well more power to you when the the various govts go bankrupt and *all* of your precious pension is pulled out from underneath you. i guess you can hope that you die before that happens. very forward thinking of you. personally i think bankruptcy is a cheat, and it's better to try (force) those involved arrive at some sustainable middle ground than to go into bankruptcy.

      How would you like it if the US government appropriated your 401K retirement money because "the rest of us are having a hard time?" Or what if the bank just up and took your house just before you finished paying your mortgage off, because they needed the income?

      unlike a govt pension, a 401k's payout is not guaranteed and is based on the performance of the economy. you must not participate in a 401k, or you'd know that a good portion of the balance has been "appropriated" by the various CEOs and wall street profit takers over the past decade. yup, that's what it's like for the rest of us.

    159. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by cavreader · · Score: 1

      "I think most other countries would be glad if you kept the fuck out of their business" Great, then we are in total agreement! Of course to be totally fair this uninvolvement would have to include stopping US government monetary aid and ancillary support assets such as military transportation services for natural disasters, all trade agreements should be bilateral, close down all foreign military bases, abrogate any existing defense treaties unless those in need of help explicitly ask for help in writing and are willing to pay an invoice for services rendered including a suitable down payment of course, eliminate financial aid of ANY kind, and yes I am including Israel, they are more than capable of kicking the shit out of their adversaries whenever necessary and without being subject to any US moderation they can finally finish the job that they were forced to abandon in 67 and 73, and finally move the UN to some other country willing to put up with their constant bullshit and let them fund themselves without the US. If people need international humanitarian assistance private US citizens are free to pick up the slack whenever they want to. Of course there are bound to be problems in implementing these measures but in this case the ends would definitely justify the means.

    160. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      love the rain down fire save life coment. I agree. but the problem is the connected world we live in and what people expect from it. and that every precious person has a opinion. ow ya and one more thing the US economy is built on the military spending. and outsourcing.

    161. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

      Oh please! Energy weapons? you trying to sell us that it has laser beams mounted to its head? they have been trying to get that crap to work for damned near 30 years and it STILL sucks!

      And if you are wanting a test platform that can land on a carrier and be stealth then the better solution is UCAV which is what the Russians are working on. with a drone you don't have the man rating so its faster to market, it can do turns that would pop a human like a zit, uses less fuel, and won't cost more than paying off half the mortgages in Oklahoma if you lose the damned thing.

      The F35 is the same damned story we have seen ever since we started the whole stealth kick, yet another multibillion dollar turkey that will have MAYBE 100 of them built and will cost frankly insane amounts of money to fly and operate. meanwhile the enemy will be able to spam with MiG29s and SU35s (Since they are cheap and Russia will sell to anybody with cash) and I don't care if the thing does a square dance in the sky to "Danger Zone" if the enemy has 50 or even 75 to 1 when it comes to numbers you be screwed friend.

      Just ask the Germans whose FW190s and BF109s were frankly nicer than what we had in their later models, not to mention their ME262. the B17 may have been a slow ass flying target but once we were able to spam them with P47s and P51s it was all over but the crying, or look at their Panther and King Tiger compared to the Sherman. it would take TEN Shermans to defeat a KT but we were cranking out 500+ to every 1 they could produce.

      In the end it frankly doesn't matter how damned slick the stealth is if we can only afford 1 for every 30+ the future enemies have, they'll just spam us out of the sky.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    162. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by vaporland · · Score: 1

      wow - I got modded "troll" for this. not much hope for the Holy Roman Empire^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h United States

      --
      Ask Me About... The 80's!
    163. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

      Actually you'd be surprised at the Soviet stuff some of them goat herders have. i can't remember the name of the battle off hand but during the invasion of Iraq we actually had ourselves a good old fashioned WWII style tank battle between the M1 and the "Lion of Babylon" tank I believed they called it? it was a heavily modified soviet T-series (A T55 IIRC) that they had been tweaking and modifying to make it more in line with current tanks, similar to what the Chinese have done with many Soviet era tech.

      Have you seen what the Pakistanis and Chinese have done with the MiG 21 and 23 designs? They are actually not bad modern aircraft. And of course if Israel stirs up shit and ends up trying to drag us into Iran (which frankly wouldn't surprise me, I've actually gotten to talk to some of the ring wing high muckety mucks thanks to living next to a conservative college and they think "We gotta make sure Jesus comes back!" is a valid strategy for the ME) much of their tech is actually based on OUR stuff, such as they have their own highly modified fighter based on the design of the F5 Freedom Fighter (talk about irony) that we sold the shah in the 70s. Go to some of the aircraft and defense sites and they think with the current blend of American and French designs it'll actually be a pretty decent fighter with a hell of a turning ratio and power to spare since the frame is so small and light, kinda a ME answer to the F16.

      So I worry about the attitude we have now. remember the japs were pretty damned arrogant at the start of the war and thought WE were the goat herders. Their plane was the fastest in the sky and was nimble whereas we were flying the aptly named Buffalo. Just because those goat herders are working with Soviet era shit doesn't mean they can't make it kick ass. For a perfect example look at the "dear little cobra" as the soviets called the Airacobra. We couldn't do shit with it, they stripped out the wing mounted guns and just stuck with the cannons and chopped Nazis all to hell with it.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    164. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by smash · · Score: 1

      If you have a stealth aircraft to take out their AWACS and ground radar infrastructure, then they can build/launch as many fighters as they like - their ability to intercept will be severely crippled as they will get minimal warning as to where you are.

      You can have all the aircraft you like - if you don't where where to send them then they're just a liability, burning resources (fuel, man hours to service and repair, spare parts transport, etc) flying around on CAP missions in the hope of catching a glimpse of something by being in the right place at the right time.

      And as far as energy weapons go - thats currently classified, but I don't believe it is a laser. I'm of the impression that it is something to do with focusing all the power in the AESA radar set it has into a directed beam weapon to fry electronics/jam radar/etc.

      --
      I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
    165. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by smash · · Score: 1

      Oh, and as to unmanned drones - either they will only be able to strike pre-planned targets, or you will need some sort of comms link to them. Which means RF. Which can be detected, and jammed. So no, i don't think we're going to get rid of manned aircraft any time soon, at least not until AI is effective enough, and the politics allow us to rely soley on AI to make yes/no decisions regarding military action on the fly.

      --
      I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
    166. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      The US needs to relax and accept that it doesn't need the absolute best weapon in all situations. These days most of your targets are in relatively low-tech countries with outdated militaries. The Eurofighter is a good example of the sort of thing you could have from the F-35 programme.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    167. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by farnham · · Score: 1

      We've been in two wars for most of the last ten years. If we didn't need them then it's not too likely we will need them anytime soon.

      --
      pending committee review
    168. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Oxford_Comma_Lover · · Score: 1

      We've been in two wars with nations which are not world powers.

      --
      -- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
    169. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by 21mhz · · Score: 1

      Well, the Swiss also have their "national redoubt": if anybody invades, they go for the mountains and try to wear the enemy down. That, and they also have been very good at being bank account holders for various European powers, and not making enemies.

      --
      My exception safety is -fno-exceptions.
    170. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by shmlco · · Score: 1

      "And at the end of it, if they're late, you can't just cut them off because that would mean you've thrown all the money you've given them away."

      The problem is that they know all of that, so they deliberately underbid the contract in order to get it in the first place, then deliberately go over budget in order to make up for the lost profits.

      --
      Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
    171. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Moofie · · Score: 1

      Since the F-16 is a strike fighter too (and really a pretty good one) this is not as loony as you might want it to sound.

      --
      Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
    172. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Moofie · · Score: 1

      Could you point me to some sources for your assertion that Army and Navy actually manufactured aircraft? Which aircraft, which factories?

      --
      Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
    173. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Moofie · · Score: 1

      Since Lockheed's fighter plant is in Texas, you have to find another stalking horse. I know how disappointed you must be.

      --
      Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
    174. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Pence128 · · Score: 1

      Yes! Where do we sign!?

      --
      404: sig not found.
    175. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by PintoPiman · · Score: 1

      Economics is about efficient allocation of scant resources. Spending more on soldiers than we need to spend, in a war we don't need to have, is not economically justified.

      We are in Iraq for political reasons, not economic reasons. Political in the sense that elected officials made the decision to go.

      Sure, there are companies making money, but not through making things that people want in a free market supply-and-demand sense. The companies are making money by being in bed with the politicians who are creating the wars.

      There's no point in this process where the kind of rational cost-benefit analysis you'd learn in an econ class is being attempted by anyone involved.

      Apparently you use "economics" as a stand-in for "using the muscle of a national government to bully others and forcibly extract money which is then given to cronies." I'm sad for you, and for us if there are many others like you.

    176. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by PintoPiman · · Score: 1

      Could you name an "economic value" that's being served by spending billions on a fighter that we don't need and haven't got?

      Would someone like you or me, if we had the money, choose to spend it on this as opposed to other alternatives? What is the economic rational behind the cronyism of the military-industrial complex?

      Economics is about maximizing the benefit of scarce resources. This feels like the opposite of that. It feels like wasting money in order to pad the pockets of the friends of politicians and bureaucrats.

      What's the economic benefit here? Are you trying to say that this is some kind of Keynesian stimulus? How is it better than the same money going to things we actually need? Little help here?

      Out of curiosity, what's your level of expertise in econ? Undergrad? Grad? PhD?

    177. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by sphealey · · Score: 1

      Well, you could try googling "navy aircraft factory" which brings this up as the first hit:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Aircraft_Factory

      but the US services built their own airplanes at other locations too including Wright Field.

      sPh

    178. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by sphealey · · Score: 1

      I should note too that if you read through the history of the National Bureau of Standards you will find that they started producing precision materials and electrical components in bulk quantities during WWI because no private manufacturer could meet the necessary standards, and actually kept a fairly substantial manufacturing operation through the missile age of the 1950s before finally turning it over the Air Force and various private industries.

      sPh

    179. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by Lemmy+Caution · · Score: 1

      You have no idea what I'm talking about, criticizing, etc. How someone could fundamentally misread a comment, its intent, and its context so completely is amazing to me.

      Early economists - Locke, Hume, Ricardo, Smith - were also philosophers. The more that economists become mere social scientists, the shallower their work became. My statement, more or less, is a critique of a kind of utilitarianism that is cast in economic terms.

      The very , very last thing I am doing is advocating the military-industrial complex.

      I'm not going to flaunt academic credentials, either, since if my point doesn't stand, the letters after my name won't change that. Nor will yours.

    180. Re:Only "troubled" if you're not Lockheed Martin by DesScorp · · Score: 1

      I believe weapons development of this type was always done by contractors. NASA never built rockets, the Navy never built ships and the Army/Air Force never built planes.

      That's not true. The Navy not only built many of it's own ships at its own shipyards, they also built their own aircraft for a time.

      To this day, the Air Force still owns many of the plants that contractors build their planes in.

      There was a perception until the end of WWII that Army and Navy owned plants helped keep contractors honest. A study the Navy Department did in the 30's determined that Navy owned plants helped keep warship costs down across the board.Even after WWII, the Navy continued to build some of their own ships, though this drastically declined after WWII because of pressure from politicians representing private yards.

      I'm a strong advocate of capitalism and free markets and minimal government control, but I make an exception in military procurement, as weapons buying can not be a true free market. There just isn't the same kind of competitive factors as there are in the civilian market. I think perhaps we should look at bringing back the military factory system for weapons. We're certainly saving no money from Lockheed Martin these days.

      --
      Life is hard, and the world is cruel
  2. Ah, makes perfect sense... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "I’d blame the program’s setbacks on the fact that we lived in a rich man’s world,"

    So, the development is five years behind schedule because the budget used to be too large?

  3. The next new airplane to get axed... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Really wonderful, since they already axed further Raptor (F-22) production (and others) because the JSF was going to be the end-all for all services. Our fleet is getting old, and our enemies are busy building 5th-gen fighters to beat ours as they eye their neighbors hungrily.

    So shortsighted it makes me sick.

    1. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by cornface · · Score: 1

      The worst part about the Raptor cuts is that they cut it after the most expensive part of the program.

      The cost per plane would have dropped significantly since the lines were already up and running. Meh.

    2. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by ElectricTurtle · · Score: 3, Insightful

      F-35 was kept at F-22's expense because unlike F-22 (which is too awesome to share with anybody else for any reason) the F-35 is as much a diplomatic tool as it is military vehicle. The US obligated itself to its allies to produce this aircraft for mutual use, and not delivering it would cause a lot more international face loss than cancelling F-22.

      It's really pathetic that we are more concerned with playing political games with our allies than fielding the best equipment for our armed forces.

      --
      I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
    3. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by the+linux+geek · · Score: 1

      The F-22 had a few issues, namely that Congress wouldn't permit it to be exported and it wasn't really suitable for carrier-based ops (no STOL/VTOL capability.) The F-35 was supposed to be the successor to the F-16 as the near-standard fighter for NATO and non-NATO US allies, and provide a replacement for the F/A-18 for the Navy.

    4. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by GodInHell · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Our fleet is getting old, and our enemies are busy building 5th-gen fighters to beat ours as they eye their neighbors hungrily.

      Uhm, who's that now? China is the only serious competitor out there that's in the jet building game nowadays, and while they may be eyeing their neighbors hungrily (and hell, they've been on a steady 1 conquest per decade rule for awhile now), they're pretty economically tied into the current relationship between the U.S., Eurozone and China. Their oil supplies are extra-national (ours are native) they're a net food importer (we're an exporter) and their entire economy is based on export fever. They may be aggressive, but "enemies" is a bit much.

      -GiH

    5. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by ComaVN · · Score: 1

      The US obligated itself to its allies to produce this aircraft for mutual use, and not delivering it would cause a lot more international face loss than cancelling F-22

      It's funny you should say that, because in The Netherlands, the opinion is that we only chose to join/support the development of the F35 to suck up to the US.

      --
      Be wary of any facts that confirm your opinion.
    6. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by the+linux+geek · · Score: 1

      Russia is building the PAK FA 5th-gen fighter.

    7. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by khallow · · Score: 1

      Russia and EU are in the game as well. Even if they aren't "enemies" by the standard of the earlier poster, they could sell to someone who gets into a conflict with the US. The Russians have already done this.

    8. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The world's leaders are now discussing their beliefs and motives on Slashdot?

    9. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

      Remember the recent Tanker fiasco... Boeing and Airbus fighting over pork with gravy while the KC-135 fleet gets older and older. And the new tanker is still YEARS away.

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    10. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The F-22 is the only so-called "5th generation fighter" that's been deployed. The only other aircraft even close are the F-35 and Russia's Sukhoi PAK FA, the latter which just had it's first flight last year and realistically won't reach production any earlier than 2016. No other "5th generation fighter" will reach production until 2020 even by the most optimistic timetables. As for the American fleet the situation is even more absurd: it's bigger than the next 13 navies combined, with 11 aircraft carriers (plus one in reserve, one building, and two more ordered) that are twice as big as anybody else's.

    11. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2

      Russia is building the PAK FA 5th-gen fighter.

      For India and anyone who will buy the thing. It's really an export item. Russia doesn't have enough money to develop a credible air threat these days.

      And the Chinese 'stealth' fighter really isn't all that leading edge. So everyone else is still playing catchup to the US. of course we need to continue pushing the envelope but we could easily modernize the F-16 and 18 and keep up with the Jonsai for another generation.

      Hell, the backbone of the bomber fleet is as old as I am. That's damned scary. I can hardly get out of bed some days much less plaster some country two continents away with tons of high explosive.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    12. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by Richard_at_work · · Score: 0

      Problem is, the F-22 turned out to be hideously expensive to fly, with something like 100 maintenance hours per flight hour required, so in essence the most expensive portion of the program was infect ahead of them - the ownership and operation.

    13. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by the+linux+geek · · Score: 1

      I'd say they do have the money. They're continuing production of the Tu-160, which is easily the best strategic bomber in the world, and if I recall they're ordering several hundred PAK FA as well as modernizing their Flanker fleet to the Su-35 standard, which should make it one of the best 4+-generation fighters out there.

    14. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by Richard_at_work · · Score: 0

      You are missing the real tanker fiasco - the KC-135 fleet only needs replacing *now* because the USAF purposely drew it down in anticipation of a replacement fleet in 2001. When that fleet was determined to be the result of corruption, for some reason the USAF managed to keep the idea of a new fleet on the cards, hence the two rounds of bidding. If the replacement hadn't been put forward to begin with, the KC-135s would currently be undergoing a midlife upgrade and merrily continuing to serve for another 30 years.

    15. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by gd2shoe · · Score: 1

      Uh, the US isn't the only democracy that discusses things on the Internet... (Hence the word "opinion" that you might have missed?)

      --
      I won't join Slashcott. OTOH, If Beta goes live, I just won't be back until it's fixed. Sorry Dice.
    16. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by gd2shoe · · Score: 1

      The problem with China is that their population, as well as ours in the US, is starting to feel that conflict is inevitable. While it isn't, such things tend to lead to increased tension, and may eventually lead to conflict.

      Thus, it is unfair, but wise, to consider China as a potential enemy, and hope they never are.

      --
      I won't join Slashcott. OTOH, If Beta goes live, I just won't be back until it's fixed. Sorry Dice.
    17. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by Aggrajag · · Score: 1

      Russia is expected to spend around 500 billion euros in the next ten years to improve their military.

    18. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by Estanislao+Mart�nez · · Score: 1

      It's really pathetic that we are more concerned with playing political games with our allies than fielding the best equipment for our armed forces.

      Except that in many cases arming our allies to be able to fight off their immediate threats is much better for us than putting ourselves in a great position to be able to fight in their stead. I mean, which would you rather have: (a) a South Korean air force powerful enough to gain air control against North Korea, or (b) the US Air Force and Navy be forced to scramble a lot of their assets to Japan and fly long-range sorties from there while the North Koreans push the Southern army down to Busan?

      Of course, this is not hypothetical; one of the reasons South Korea did so badly against the North in the first few days of the 1950 war was that the North had an air force and the South didn't. If the US Navy hadn't intervened promptly to provide carrier-based air patrol over Korea, the North Koreans would have won quickly.

    19. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by demonbug · · Score: 1

      I'd say they do have the money. They're continuing production of the Tu-160, which is easily the best strategic bomber in the world, and if I recall they're ordering several hundred PAK FA as well as modernizing their Flanker fleet to the Su-35 standard, which should make it one of the best 4+-generation fighters out there.

      Regarding the Tu-160, the reason the U.S. has pretty much abandoned that type of aircraft is that it has become largely obsolete. There are better, safer ways of delivering nuclear and non-nuclear munitions to defended targets than sending in a very fast strategic bomber. If you look at U.S. operations over the past decades, they almost always start with sea-and air-launched cruise missile attacks on the air defense network. Once the air defenses are down, B-52s, as old as they are, are able to carry plenty of ordnance wherever you need it. That's the issue - despite the speed, a Tu-160 wouldn't really be much more successful in attacking a well-defended target than a B-52 would; MACH 2.0 vs. 0.7 just doesn't matter that much compared to the capabilities of modern surface to air missiles. Speed and altitude just aren't the defenses they were when the B-70 and B-1A (and Tu-160) were on the drawing board. What you get with the Tu-160 is a hideously expensive to fly strategic bomber with marginally better payload capacity (by weight) than a B-52 or Tu-95. The only reason they are restarting production is that Putin likes the intimidation factor of a supersonic bomber (and the bragging rights of having the biggest and fastest); the reason that there are only 16 of them active compared to ~500 Tu-95 is that they are simply too expensive without really being significantly more capable in real-world scenarios. This is probably the same reason we haven't seen a real replacement for the B-52; while we could build one with a greater payload capacity and be marginally more cost effective/efficient, unless we spend the huge amounts necessary to go stealth and/or high-speed it just isn't going to change the way we can utilize them. We have other weapons for high-risk strikes into well-defended territory; there is no real significant improvement possible for our current use of B-52s, which is to transport large amounts of ordnance from Point A and drop it on Area B.

    20. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by atrain728 · · Score: 1

      I'll just leave this here.

    21. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by demonbug · · Score: 4, Informative

      Remember the recent Tanker fiasco... Boeing and Airbus fighting over pork with gravy while the KC-135 fleet gets older and older. And the new tanker is still YEARS away.

      This was again mostly the fault of the DoD. They ran the worst acquisition program ever. They basically issued requirements which Boeing and Airbus had no trouble meeting. However, they didn't really nail down the desired capacity for the new tanker. Boeing was told (by DoD personnel) that they preferred a smaller tanker; Airbus was told (by different DoD personnel) that they desired a larger tanker. Airbus easily could have offered a smaller tanker to meet the requirements; Boeing easily could have offered a larger. But because the Air Force's requirements were so poorly put together, it wasn't really clear what they wanted. The first round of the selection, which Airbus won, was decided largely because the Airbus solution offered greater fuel capacity. Boeing objected to the selection because Airbus received bonus points in the evaluation for offering more capacity - which Boeing also could have offered had it been clear that the Air Force was going to give bonus points for it.

      Not the only issue by far in the tanker competition, but it could have been avoided if the DoD had just spent a little more time figuring out exactly what they wanted before calling for bids. Just as with civilian airliners, I really don't think there is much to choose between a Boeing-based platform and an Airbus-based platform, and a purely cost vs. capability evaluation would probably depend on easily-fudgeable (or difficult to predict, depending on your mood) analyses of lifetime costs; adding in slightly different requirements for each just makes it impossible to have a fair evaluation.

    22. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      Republic dear, not democracy. Greek debt shenanigans should show that very clearly even to the most uninformed: "Oh my god, you're going to have a democratic referendum? HOW DARE YOU!".

    23. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      You forget that while US went in that direction, Europe went in other with eurofighter, which also works.

      You can write a thesis on why stealth is better then speed, but the point will stand - both work well.

    24. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      They're continuing production of the Tu-160

      It's "limited production". This translates to 2 being manufactured in the last 15 years (one in 2000, the other in 2008). Russia has acquired another 8 by sourcing the remaining ones from Ukraine, as a payment for the latter's debt. The last word on the upcoming plans was that 3 more would be built "eventually".

      if I recall they're ordering several hundred PAK FA

      That would be kinda tricky, given that development is not complete yet - they're expected to have a design-complete working prototype of T-50 in 2013, and put it in service in 2014-15 (keep in mind that, while there are existing "PAK FA" prototypes, they're not final, and some represent alternative design approaches which have since been abandoned). Initially, it is expected that Russian Air Force will order ~60 planes, starting at 2015.

      as well as modernizing their Flanker fleet to the Su-35 standard, which should make it one of the best 4+-generation fighters out there.

      Yup. The fact that Soviet planes were that good (Su-35 was first flown in 1988) is largely why Russian air force is still a credible threat - most of the development is already done, and there are existing manufacturing lines that can be reused with minimal effort. It will be much harder for Russia to maintain parity as 5th gen becomes more commonplace, however.

    25. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      It's election time in Russia. If you listen to the official propaganda, it's expected to restore its superpower status by 2020, take over the world by 2050, and achieve superpowers for all its citizens by 2100.

    26. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Russia is building the PAK FA 5th-gen fighter.

      For India and anyone who will buy the thing. It's really an export item. Russia doesn't have enough money to develop a credible air threat these days.

      And the Chinese 'stealth' fighter really isn't all that leading edge. So everyone else is still playing catchup to the US. of course we need to continue pushing the envelope but we could easily modernize the F-16 and 18 and keep up with the Jonsai for another generation.

      Hell, the backbone of the bomber fleet is as old as I am. That's damned scary. I can hardly get out of bed some days much less plaster some country two continents away with tons of high explosive.

      You don't have to exceed the technical merits of the US military. You just have to be good enough. And really being good enough is enough to give the americans a bad day F-22/F-23 notwithstanding. Witness Iraq and Afghanistan.
      In these years the only really groundbreaking concept in the US military has been the Osprey. This was really needed, it was not money wasted. But F-22 and F-23 dear god its money down the drain with no end in sight.

      A well designed IADS with last generation Sukhoi's is going to be a bad day for the F-22 or F-23. Unless you think radar and missile technology has not improved for the last 2 decades. Remember you just have to be good enough to inflict damage to your adversary. And when your adversary's toys cost north of 100 000 000 $ a piece well you already have the high ground.

      The F-22 as well as the Seawolf are relics of a bygone era. The Seawolf was justly canned in favor of a more modern less costly version. The F-22 no, even when its raison d'etre simply vanished from history.

    27. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by X.25 · · Score: 1

      Uhm, who's that now? China is the only serious competitor out there that's in the jet building game nowadays

      Obviously, Russia does not build planes.

    28. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by X.25 · · Score: 1

      Russia and EU are in the game as well. Even if they aren't "enemies" by the standard of the earlier poster, they could sell to someone who gets into a conflict with the US. The Russians have already done this.

      Others do not "get into conflict with the US". It is US that attacks others.

      And of course Russians sell weapons to other countries. US sells weapons to other countries too (and is the largest weapon seller in the world).

    29. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by Aggrajag · · Score: 1

      I thought Putin was already chosen to be the next president.

    30. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      Yes, but it's not quite North Korea yet. They still have to count the votes, and there is only so much fraud that can be done before people start complaining.

    31. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Old is relative with aircraft. There are some DC3's flying down to Antactica this summer that look very similar to the one in the 1951 movie "The Thing from Outer Space". They have new engines, an added mid section and some electronics to separate them from the DC3 of WWII.

    32. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by ComaVN · · Score: 1

      In the case of Greece, it's more like "Oh my god, we've been discussing a solution for our problems for months, and now it turns out you can't really speak for your people because you have zero support from them?"

      --
      Be wary of any facts that confirm your opinion.
    33. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by khallow · · Score: 1

      Whatever. Point is, the US gets into scraps and if the US spends its time building pork programs instead of cost-effective, working weapons, it's going to start losing badly once all those other producers pass them by. Obviously, you wouldn't think that's a bad thing.

    34. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by gd2shoe · · Score: 1

      *sigh*

      Yes, republic... Seriously though, who did I confuse?

      Democracy has entered the vernacular as meaning elected representation. It's not technically correct, but it's also not going away.

      --
      I won't join Slashcott. OTOH, If Beta goes live, I just won't be back until it's fixed. Sorry Dice.
    35. Re:The next new airplane to get axed... by PintoPiman · · Score: 1

      I think the idea good sir is that if you do the diplomacy right, you don't NEED the armed forces. =)

  4. Solyndra by Cyberax · · Score: 2

    So when Congress Republicans are going to launch investigations about this failure like they did with Solyndra?

    1. Re:Solyndra by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Military procurement projects never fail. They only get canceled by democrats who are weak on national defense...

    2. Re:Solyndra by Bardwick · · Score: 1

      The investigation would reveal that a government project is over budget and long overdue. What's to investigate? This happens on pretty much every project.

    3. Re:Solyndra by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      So when Congress Republicans are going to launch investigations about this failure like they did with Solyndra?

      They'll demand an investigation about the time the campaign donations, expensive vacations, and cushy jobs for their relatives stop happening.

    4. Re:Solyndra by metiscus · · Score: 4, Informative

      The difference is that Lockheed isn't a bankrupt company, financed with taxpayer funds, given under dubious circumstances. The contracts for the F-35 and F-22 are well known and derived from congressional authority. If you want congress to investigate the largess at Lockheed, contact your senator, but at least the F-35 contract was awarded openly. We don't know much about the loan that was given to Solyndra since the administration has refused a lawful congressional subpoena.

    5. Re:Solyndra by iteyoidar · · Score: 2

      "The difference is that Lockheed isn't a bankrupt company, financed with taxpayer funds, given under dubious circumstances."

      Two out of three is pretty close!

      (and the third is really a matter of the degree of taxpayer funding)

    6. Re:Solyndra by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      The F-35 contract was based on the fact that it looked nicer than the boeing aircraft. Boeing underestimated how much coolness factor goes into aircraft selection. They focused on things like meeting design goals.

    7. Re:Solyndra by metiscus · · Score: 1

      Just so I am clear, there is quite a bit of openness about the history and current state of the f-35 program. Where are the Solyndra documents?

    8. Re:Solyndra by Kenja · · Score: 1

      Its only not bankrupt because we keep on giving them tax payer monies under dubious circumstances. If we stopped, they would have major issues. But we keep funding projects that never get off the ground.

      --

      "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    9. Re:Solyndra by EdZ · · Score: 1

      Which is a shame, as I preferred the look of the X-32 (and the YF-23, too). Contracts are given based on how boring the plane looks (and by how much they can unrealistically lowball the estimate before pushing the actual cost way above the reasonable estimated competitors bid).

    10. Re:Solyndra by metiscus · · Score: 1

      But we keep funding projects that never get off the ground.

      Looks like they are off the ground to me?

    11. Re:Solyndra by MaWeiTao · · Score: 1

      Boeing didn't really lose out. They've got the Phantom Ray.

      Ironically, they'll probably be the ones who end up winning in the end.

    12. Re:Solyndra by Bardwick · · Score: 1

      The Legislative Branch, under authority validated by the Judicial branch, issued a subpoena to the Executive Branch for those documents. The Executive Branch remained consistent by ignoring the constitution and saying "whatever".

    13. Re:Solyndra by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yet it was well known Republican Bob Gates that pushed to cancel the F22, not the dems. BTW, I think that he did mostly the right thing. I do not agree with the choice to stop production on the ABL. However, the current dems that push for cancellation of lasers and esp. the railguns, certainly make your case.

    14. Re:Solyndra by Cyberax · · Score: 1

      Around 60000 pages have already been submitted.

    15. Re:Solyndra by Richard_at_work · · Score: 0

      Except the Boeing offering could not achieve most of the fly-off goals without actual modification to the airframe each time (for a vertical takeoff the Boeing team had to remove sections of the bodywork to allow enough airflow and reduce the weight, which restricted the aircraft in forward flight - so the Boeing team couldn't demonstrate a straight mission profile). The Lockheed aircraft outperformed and outflew the Boeing aircraft throughout the fly-off, even to the point of air-to-air refuelling (the Boeing aircraft abandoned refuelling) and firing a missile (even through that wasn't part of the demonstration requirements).

    16. Re:Solyndra by Richard_at_work · · Score: 0

      The real reason Boeing will come out as the winner is because they bought McDonell Douglas, and with it the F-15 (which is selling reasonably well overseas) and the F/A-18, which is what a lot of countries are looking at instead of the F-35 (Australia just bought a load, and are considering dropping their F-35 buy for more F/A-18s - and it looks likely that the USMC will lose the F-35B and have to buy more F/A-18s instead, as well as the F-35C).

    17. Re:Solyndra by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is also a 1000x size of scale. Solyndra got a $25 million tax-brake. The JSF program has so far cost $300 billion, and each plane will cost more than $100 million to produce, or 4 Solyndra scandals each.

    18. Re:Solyndra by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or the fact that the X-35 did Short Take Off, supersonic, Vertical Landing during testing.
      The fact that the X-32 was nicknamed the Monica was secondary to needing to take stuff off to accomplish STO and VL.

      Compare the actual flyaway costs of Block 60 F-16, F-15SE, F/A-18E/F, and F-35A/C. Its not all that much more expensive. Development is taking a while; good to spend it up front rather than refurbs on all 2k or 3k examples. If we want to maintain air superiority in any fight, its going to cost this much. We don't get access to all the data either; an engine that is rated at 42k lb thrust was openly reported to have over 50k with room to grow. They are in the home stretch, the vendor is taking hits to make their numbers, volume production will drive the costs to the cost targets they, and the independent govt assessors agree on. Time to build.

      andy

    19. Re:Solyndra by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, Lockheed has been bailed out by your Federal gouvernment several times and been bankrupt at least once. They have a prooven track rechord of being able to turn any high paying contract into a big loss.

    20. Re:Solyndra by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really? Superficially, it looked like the difference was $65.5B.

      Scale everything down 100,000 fold, so that the Solyndra $500M becomes $5,000.

      My neighbour says his money is getting tight. He's furious that he loaned $5,000 to his bum brother-in-law at his wife's urging and demands that she explain why she showed such favouritism. Of course, the rest of us neighbours can't help but notice the man has a predilection for buying $220,000 Ferraris. He defends them as a required replacement for his $95,000 BMWs.

      He has three of them so far.

    21. Re:Solyndra by mabhatter654 · · Score: 1

      The Republican Congress handed the Republican President and Vice President whatever they wanted for 6 years straight. Meanwhile the Republican President and Vice Prez spat on any inkling of Congressional oversight.

      Why would Obama gives all that up again? It's not like Congress can "make him" .. They couldn't control their own horse in the race.

    22. Re:Solyndra by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Two out of three is pretty close! (and the third is really a matter of the degree of taxpayer funding)

      Well, let's review the situation.

      >>"The difference is that Lockheed isn't a bankrupt company...

      Lockheed turns a profit annually and so, by definition, isn't bankrupt. Solyndra apparently never turned a profit, which should lead us to question how they qualified for a loan in the first place.

      >>...financed with taxpayer funds...

      The difference is that Lockheed has significant revenue streams outside its government contracts. Solyndra didn't. The *only* significant revenue stream Solyndra had was the loan that the Obama Administration is now refusing to discuss, and which again leads us to question how they qualified for a loan. No sane bank would loan money to a company without a demonstrable revenue stream.

      >>...given under dubious circumstances.

      The government's contracting process is inefficient and obtuse, but at least 1) there was an actual legal process through which Lockheed competed to win the contract; and 2) you can access DoD records and review how the competition unfolded under the terms of that process if you're so inclined. By contrast, the only legal process Solyndra went through to get its stimulus loan appears to have been Obama pointing to their CEO and telling his staffers "give this man a pile of money." And you can't review the process through which Solyndra got that money because if the Obama Administration isn't going to comply with a Congressional subpoena asking for that info, they sure aren't going to give it to any private citizen for the asking.

      You might not like Lockheed, but there's no arguing that they're a viable business, have been for decades, and produce something of tangible value for the taxpayer dollars they compete for. You can't say any of that about Solyndra. It wasn't a viable business, didn't compete for the taxpayers dollars it received, and produced nothing of value for those dollars. At least Lockheed gives you something for your money. Giving money to Solyndra was pouring dollars down the drain.

    23. Re:Solyndra by PintoPiman · · Score: 1

      Lol, Solyndra doesn't even get to play in this discussion. Why argue about pennies when we're burning hundreds? Solyndra is low millions, F35 is billions. Do you understand the difference? It's more than a thousand times more. As in, you'd need a thousand Solyndras for them to matter as much as this.

      How long does it take for our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to spend the entire Solyndra loan? 12 hours?

    24. Re:Solyndra by n8r0n · · Score: 1

      Uh, the F-35/JSF was like the biggest procurement in the history of military aviation. Phantom Ray is a tiny program. So, yeah, Boeing lost out.

      As Scott Evil once said, "A billion is more than a million, numbnuts."

    25. Re:Solyndra by n8r0n · · Score: 1

      What? Lockheed is financed almost entirely with taxpayer funds, they lose what Solyndra lost, every year in between the couch cushions, and you don't know anything about what really happened at Solyndra, other than they had a business that didn't succeed.

      Perhaps no company in the US gets more of their business from "black" projects, so don't even try to pretend like the lack of transparency in the Solyndra deal is even on the same order of magnitude as Lockheed's business.

      God, conservatives are adept at pulling crap out of their rear ends!

    26. Re:Solyndra by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Beats not pulling the crap out and being full of crap like liberals are.

  5. Humanity does not need that. by stooo · · Score: 0

    Humanity does not need that.

    --
    aaaaaaa
  6. Same budget woes as the JWST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Only with 10 times the money wasted.

  7. Good! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The world doesn't need the Empire getting any more military technology!

    1. Re:Good! by JSBiff · · Score: 1

      I think the Libyans might have a different perspective. . .

    2. Re:Good! by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      Which ones? The ones that got bombed to the ground, or ones currently having fun raping and killing those that got bombed to the ground?

      They both have a reason to fear a military attack yet again you know.

  8. Not troubled at all. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Interesting.

    Aside from the named modern weapons, it almost described the last days of the Roman Empire.

    The good news is, if we go the way of the British Empire, the standard of living for the average citizen will go up like it did for the English - it's expensive being a World power and the cost is born by the middle and lower classes (99%) while the benefits go to the upper classes (1%).

    As a matter of fact, the faster we decline the better it is for most of us. And maybe, just maybe, we can get some of that defense money to NASA?

    Another point, if you look at the demilitarized nations (Germany, Japan), they did pretty damn good after their militaries were drastically reduced.

    1. Re:Not troubled at all. by elrous0 · · Score: 1

      Another point, if you look at the demilitarized nations (Germany, Japan), they did pretty damn good after their militaries were drastically reduced.

      Yeah, but they were only able to do that because the U.S. and Europe stepped in and took over their defence with NATO and occupation. Who is going to do that for the U.S. if we go bust?

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    2. Re:Not troubled at all. by gd2shoe · · Score: 1

      China, OPEC, North Korea, and Russia!

      And if we're especially lucky: Canada, Brazil, and India. (I know, fat chance.)

      --
      I won't join Slashcott. OTOH, If Beta goes live, I just won't be back until it's fixed. Sorry Dice.
    3. Re:Not troubled at all. by Luckyo · · Score: 1

      They're not "demilitarized". German army is quite powerful, as is Japanese. You're referring to their politics, which tend to avoid conflicts (Germany) and are pacifist because of constitutional requirements (Japan).

      But they both are most certainly equipped to fight a defensive war, or even offensive war if needed. Make no mistake here. They have a lot of military tech and comparatively large military budgets (as compared to rest of the world minus USA).

    4. Re:Not troubled at all. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, he's not. He's referring to the fact that they were formerly demilitarized per conditions of surrender. But yes, we all know they've modernized and are defensively capable.

  9. Re:Ah, makes perfect sense... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Actually... Yes! Without enough limitations projects are very susceptible to feature creep, and since they can keep getting money year after year without producing anything, there is not that much incentive to actually finish.

  10. Re:Ah, makes perfect sense... by MrTester · · Score: 1

    No, were 5 years behind schedule because the governments response to that situation in the past has been "Oh. Well here's some more money. Let see if that helps."

  11. Affordable replacement for something paid for by Todd+Knarr · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The JSF's biggest problem: it's a replacement for things the military already owns. No matter how much more cost-effective it might be, the planes it's intended to replace have already been paid for. The spare parts are already bought and paid for and in the warehouse. The pilots and ground crews are already trained. And everybody else uses those same planes too so wherever we go we can be assured of finding support facilities that'll accommodate the existing planes. No matter how affordable the JSF is, it's still going to cost more to bring into service than it'll cost to keep the existing planes flying.

    And it isn't bringing anything to the table that the existing planes don't do. Sure it'll do in one package what you'd need several other models of aircraft to do, but it's not so incredibly more effective that you'd need fewer total planes and you still have to buy all new planes and spares and train crews on it. If you're tight on cash, you stick with what you've already got.

    1. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The JSF's biggest problem: it's a replacement for things the military already owns.

      While I do agree with your point, I'd argue the JSF's biggest problem is it's designed for a war we're unlikely to ever find ourselves in. What need is there for a high-tech plane like this when you're fighing against a bunch of cave-dwelling terrorists?

      These shiny gadgets were born out of the cold war, but that's over. Does anyone think China would want a military confrontation with any of its largest customers? Do people really think Russia is likely to rise again?

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    2. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by archen · · Score: 1

      I'm not entirely sure I even understand what kind of war would require the F-35. The reality of modern warfare is that fighter jets are missile delivery systems. Avionics and missile/bomb capabilities are what really makes the jet, and the old tried and true F-15 can do that just fine. It's unclear how much of an advantage stealth really is for something like the F-35 against a high tech adversary anyway.

    3. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 1

      By the time the F-35 starts to come fully online (2020?), the F-16, which is one of those it will replace, will have been in service for 40 years. Extrapolating forward, that means we can expect to be flying the F-35's well past 2050 or 2060. I doubt we could keep F-16's and -18's around until then.

    4. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      Why?
      You think we are going to forget how to build them?

    5. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by Sir_Sri · · Score: 1

      Well except that the planes currently in service are going to be very old by 2020, or 2025 and that's when the JSF is really going to take off as a major airforce component around the world. I'm sure you'll see roll outs in 2013 or so, but in 2020 you don't want to be relying on aircraft and parts made in 1996, so you are buying an aircraft design for the future, not for today. Compared to the Harriers, F16 A/B even D's, early model F15's, F18's (not necessarily the super hornet) it's a *much* better aircraft in terms of range, performance at range etc. Even without stealth. And having standardized parts across countries sounds appealing (it might not be). It's still better than the Superhornet and the F22 is really the replacement for the F15, but not by as huge a margin, bu then it will be contemporary to the F18E for a lot of its service life anyway.

      And of course there's the more modern avionics suite, which is hard to evaluate.

      What it's bringing to the table is the same reason you buy a new car when the old one requires $500 in maintenance every month because some other damn thing is wrong with it. And when it comes to aircraft you have to plan for this long in advance.

    6. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by max2312312 · · Score: 1

      By 2020 or 2025 manned fighter jets will be a relic of the past. Everything will be drones.

    7. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by Baloroth · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No offense, but a no large country, or country with many potential enemies (the first usually implies the latter), can afford to stand still in military technology. You always have to be working towards the next generation. Otherwise, you both can and will get crushed if you end up being attacked by another country that hasn't remained stagnant in military tech. Military technology can't simply be developed to fight your present enemy. You must look towards the future. Otherwise, you will be crushed. Doesn't matter if no current country would be an enemy: one could emerge practically overnight.

      The only case where a country could not continue to develop new technologies like these are if they know, with near absolute certainty, they simply won't be attacked. Otherwise, not developing means you simply look like an easier target for the next ego-maniac to take over a country. And as any student of history can tell you, with absolute 100% certainty, that will happen.

      Nuclear weapons do have the potential to alter this dynamic somewhat, since no two nuclear countries want to go to war. On the other hand, the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System could alter even that. Again, another example of military advancement which should hopefully never be needed, but which is still vitally important. You just know someone, eventually, is going to launch nuclear weapons. If we can stop that, we should.

      --
      "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
    8. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2

      . Does anyone think China would want a military confrontation with any of its largest customers? Do people really think Russia is likely to rise again?

      The Pentagon would like to believe that. And to a certain point, that's what they are supposed to do. Historically, the US has been behind the curve when dealing with threats. Over the past couple of decades we've outspent the rest of the world many times over in term of military capabilities. That has given us overwhelming superiority for major conflicts (dealing with complicated political / military issues in stone age countries not so much). Somebody has to step in and determine when enough is enough. I don't think anybody in power has the cojones to do that.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    9. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by max2312312 · · Score: 1

      In 2020 drones will be better (and cheaper if the big defense contractors don't design them) than any manned jet.

    10. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by flyingsquid · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Well, I wouldn't want to write off the possibility that we, or our allies, find ourselves at war with a large, technologically advanced opponent- perhaps even Russia- in the next 50 years. If anyone thinks that Russia's imperialist days are long past, look at the 2008 war with Georgia over South Ossetia. Is that just a throwback to Cold War expansionism, or a preview of and practice for things to come? That being said, it's probably safe to say that the odds of such a war any time soon are much lower than they have been in decades, whereas the odds that we'll find ourselves trading fire with illiterate farmers armed with Kalashnikovs and IEDs are damn near 100%, so it's clear where our priorities should lie.

      The other issue is, even assuming Russia does get their act together militarily, and even assuming they then try to throw their weight around a little, how are we going to fight that war? Odds are, it will be with unmanned drones. The Predators have proven themselves, again and again, against the Taliban in Afghanistan, terrorists in Yemen, and against conventional ground forces in Libya. And ultimately, there's no reason you can't just build larger, faster drones that have longer ranges, higher speeds, stealth capabilities, and carry a wider range of armaments- including air-to-air missiles- than current drones. We're already seeing this start to happen. They're now putting Stinger missiles on the Predator, which will allow it to shoot down other aircraft, and they're developing the General Atomics Avenger as the next-generation successor to the Predator- it has a higher speed, it can carry a larger payload, and it's got low-observability (stealth) technology incorporated into it. And the drones will only continue to get better. Pretty soon they'll be good enough that it will seem pointless to risk the lives of pilots, or a $150 million F-22, when you can send a couple of cheap drones to do the same job and not lose any sleep if they get shot down.

    11. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Boing has a F-18 2nd generation that has been designed to replace the F-16 at 1/10th of the cost of the F-35. It is only called F-18 II because the F-16 was originally awarded to Lockheed who is making the F-35. It doesn't have stealth and VTOL, but can work equally well on current aircraft carriers as the current F-18 1st generation. F-16 I are only forced to retire because their manufacturer is retiring them to push the more expensive F-35s. It still flies fine and all the electronics has already been completely replaced several times, so it is not even the same plane anymore except for the body.

    12. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except that the planes it is replacing are literally falling out of the air from stress fatigue. There is a finite limit to how many flight hours a given airframe can tolerate, at which point the odds of a catastrophic failure go up considerably. F-15's have been grounded several times as a result of this.

      There are two problems with the F-35, one is that they wanted considerable parts compatibility across all three variants, the other is that it required a lot of new technology that is still being developed/tested, particularly in the avionics and weapon systems.

      When talking about the F-35, there are THREE different aircraft, they just share a name because of the desire for commonality of parts, the A model is a conventional fighter/attack aircraft with a high degree of stealth intended to replace the F-15 and F-16. The B model is a vertical takeoff and landing model intended to replace the Harrier, A-10, and some of the F/A-18's used by the Marines. The C model is a carrier fighter/attack model intended to replace the F/A-18 Hornet and F/A-18E/F SuperHornet.

    13. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're the type of person who insists we should keep driving the cars we have since they'll cause less damage to the environment than the damage caused by manufacturing a new "green" car, aren't you? Eh...can't fault that logic...

    14. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      because by 2030 you can buy parts to drop down them at every best buy and they'll stop developing.

      with the attitude that it's the last plane to be designed, how surprised is anyone that the design never gets really ready?

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    15. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      The problem is that our current aircraft are old. Let me explain it to everyone how old.
      The F-15's first flight was in 1972. Entered service in 1976. It is some of the finest 1960s technology on the planet.
      It is still in service because of upgrades but their comes a time when you just have to build new.
      The F-16 FF 1974 and entered service in 1978 again some what updated but not new tech.
      F-18 was a derivative of the F-17 which competed with the F-16 so first flight is about the same and entered service in 1983. The Super Hornet is much newer at 1995 and 1999 for entry into service.
      The B-52 first flight I believe was actually in 1952 and the last builds where in the early 1960s.
      As a rule the military flys aircraft for a very long time so they get their and ours money of of them.
      Now you could take the F-15 and put new radar on it and put new engines in it but the truth is that the the actual airframe is the cheap part. You would pay probably 70% of the cost of a new build to get about %50 of the improvement. Then you have the cost of suppliers. As planes get older parts go out of production. You could even have issues with alloys and plastics going out of production.
      So at some point it is just better to build new.
      Now the F-35 had a nightmare spec added to it when they decided to require VSTOL. That through a lot of new and better problems in the mix. Then add in the super advanced avionics and it went through the roof.
      Frankly the VSTOL should just be dropped but that would tick off the UK,Italy, and Spain which are both counting on it to replace the Harrier.
      If it helps the same problems where seen in the F-15, F-14, F-106, and F-111. The F-111 was actually thought of as a total disaster but went on to a long service life and did very well.
      As too UAVs there is a problem with them still and that is bandwidth. You can not control 100 UAVs in air to air combat at a distance yet. And frankly AI UCAVS scare the crap out of me at this time.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    16. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by DerekLyons · · Score: 1

      The spare parts are already bought and paid for and in the warehouse.

      Yep. And that stock of parts is dwindling and it costs ever more to get replacements for parts designed (in some cases) as far back the seventies.
       
      A friend of mine down the road at the naval shipyard just got done with a decade long program to replace a critical component onboard Trident SSBN's. The component was originally designed in the fifties, and units installed on Tridents were updated and manufactured in the seventies and eighties. But the submarines are expected to last into the 2030's, and the last manufacturer of that component closed it's line in 1998. (The equivalent civilian technology having moved on, and the Navy's annual orders being too small to keep the line open.)

    17. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      GA shill?

      A great many companies and unmanned vehicles exist besides those produced by General Atomics. Lockheed has the RQ-170, Northrop has the Global Hawk, etc. etc.

    18. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by gutnor · · Score: 2

      I guess that the point that the GP is making is that the rest of the world has understood that big war confrontation with the US is not winnable and therefore have chosen other roads, as illustrated by the complete lack of efficiency the US have against the current crop of terrorist.

      So indeed, the army should not stand still, keeping the lead in big war toys is important as a reminder that nobody should try the US, but even more important is preparing to fight against the other vectors of attack.

      Put in other words, had the F35 been available, would that have helped/shortened/made cheaper/prevented the last decade of continuous conflict the US has been into ? Would that have made Iran, North Korea more wary ? Would it have improved US position against China ? If not, maybe taxpayer money should better be invested in tech that does.

    19. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Doesn't this reasoning just end up with a dog chasing it's tail? If the USA has to "keep up" its modern fighters to match "all potential threats", then don't Russia and China also fall prey to the same logic? Presumably the USA is their "potential threat". But if they keep upgrading every chance they can, then doesn't the USA have to as well? Do we just continue with this square dance until all the nations of the world destroy their economies and ruin the environment to fund never-ending arms races?

      It used to be that rulers could decide that there were no REAL threats and scale back their investment, now it seems that that option is simply off the table.

    20. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Russia's war with Georgia was nothing but Georgia's then president goading Russia into a war. Georgia started it, it's not cold war follow on anything, it was one idiot messing with the biggest on the block, and getting his nose broken for it.

    21. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by Princeofcups · · Score: 1

      Does anyone think China would want a military confrontation with any of its largest customers? Do people really think Russia is likely to rise again?

      It took Germany fewer than 20 years to go from completely broke and in debt (post WWI) to military powerhouse. I don't think we need the plane either, but any country with people and resources can quickly catch up to the US military with the right application of "will."

      --
      The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
    22. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by LeperPuppet · · Score: 1

      With the possible exception of STOVL, the JSF design doesn't offer any useful capabilities in the future that can't be served by existing aircraft designs at a lower cost. For bombing enemies without any airforce, the F-35 is a gold-plated bomb truck whose mission could be more cheaply achieved by new-build F-16s or possibly even newer turbo-props. For penetrating high-end enemy air defenses, the F-35 isn't likely to be competitive against future Russian SAM systems (S-400, S-500) or future stealth aircraft (PAKFA and J-20) and would require assistance (B-2, F-22, cruise missiles, etc). Once (or if) those threats are down, you've got a mostly permissive airspace where legacy aircraft can operate unmolested at a lower cost. In summary, it's not stealthy enough to compete with future air threats and its too expensive to use in permissive airspace.

      Unfortunately at this point, the JSF program is too big to fail and plenty of civilian and military personal have bet their careers on it, while the various services have gambled their future aircraft recapitalization on it. Expect to see the total number of aircraft built to be reduced below 800 (down from ~2500) and the cost inflate to more than $100m each (up from Lockheed Martin's promised $65m).

    23. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are a number of analysts who have suggested that the fall of communism was a ruse. Do a search for Yamantau Mountain and consider the fact that no US agent has ever set foot in the facility, our generals "trust" the Russians about it. Ugh, those quotes are mind numbing and make me want to strangle the current crop of generals. How can we be sure of treaty compliance if we don't inspect for compliance? Why do they have a nuclear secure facility that large that we can't inspect? Why have treaties at all if we cannot insure compliance? The fact that Russia continues to develop missile launching platforms ("to combat terrorism" was the last of many excuses I saw published) when they already hold the upper hand in delivery platforms in the Topol-M road mobile ICBM is not really a peaceful posture. Building large nuclear secure facilities is a belief in a future nuclear war, and Yamantau Mountain is merely the biggest. Our government is doing it too, all that new construction under the white house, though it's at a comparatively tiny scale relative to Russia's preparations.

      Consider the last time Bush talked about building and deploying a missile shield, the Russians and Chinese screamed bloody murder. A missile shield is very much a *defense* oriented technology. That should tell you at least a little about their intentions and motivations, regardless of their language or other smoke the blow in other spheres. Even if you assume that it simply disrupts MAD (realistically, it does NOT unless you create and deploy a credible boost-phase interceptor), the idea of how perturbed our "former" enemies are at the possibility of it should be at least cause for pause.

      The signs are all there for continued hostilities with Russia and China, however, they are not relayed to the public at large with any feeling that they understand. Why our leaders would cover for obviously hostile moves by Russia and China, I have no idea.

      Anyway... To bring us full circle to the JSF. I don't like how our military acquisition systems are structured. I think there are many systemic issues inside of the acquisition wings in the various branches in addition to the strategic and political motives. One recent pattern I've noticed (I work on some smaller programs that will remain unnamed) is that of demanding a tight schedule as a means of controlling costs, yet it causes the opposite to happen down at the lower levels. This is probably a reaction to the chronic late attribute of programs. We spend huge amounts of overtime and extra labor trying to squish schedules even a little bit compared to a more relaxed and practiced tempo would provide, and often in the rush mistakes are made anyway that blow up the already at risk schedule. Another reoccurring problem is minor requirement differences driving a redesign of an otherwise existing component at a large expense penalty. This has happened over and over again where a component is available that does 95% of what they want, is rejected over something relatively minor and probably irrelevant. So we instead spend the $millions to recreate that same component again to get them the exact specs they were looking for. Obviously I don't have complete visibility into the scope of the project and maybe someone really does have a clue higher up, but that's what it looks like on my end and having that much intimate understanding of those minor requirements seems very unlikely.

      If I were put in charge I would make fewer toys but make them in greater numbers. I believe a future confrontation with Russia/China is likely, and my toys would be oriented towards this goal. Warring overseas is putting our strategic security at home at risk. We're wasting blood, hardware, and cash over there that could be put to use here hardening our country against the more realistic strategic threats that we face. As we bleed ourselves out, we only become a more and more tempting target for a would-be aggressor. All of which could be done on a much smaller budget than we currently use.

      Which is my anonymous opinion.

    24. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If anyone thinks that Russia's imperialist days are long past, look at the 2008 war with Georgia over South Ossetia. Is that just a throwback to Cold War expansionism, or a preview of and practice for things to come?

      Given that the war with Georgia was started by Georgia (if you disagree, consider the reaction of U.S. if American peacekeeping forces would have their barracks deliberately shelled and then assaulted, and numerous servicemen killed, while in their designated area of operations - say, folk in KFOR), what does it have to do with Russian expansionism?

      Russia can barely hold what it already have (see also: Chechnya, where local warlords are effectively paid off by Russian federal government in exchange for token recognition of Moscow supremacy) - pretty much everything beyond that is political posturing. The war in South Ossetia happened only because the politicians would have been crucified by the electorate if they were to leave such a major slap in the face without a decisive response.

    25. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      These shiny gadgets were born out of the cold war, but that's over. Does anyone think China would want a military confrontation with any of its largest customers? Do people really think Russia is likely to rise again?

      Russia ...no, China, North Korea, Pakistan, India. It is easy to justify getting rid of these in the hopes of trench warfare with a bunch of gorilla fighters, however what do you do if relations between say china, become sour ? Mobilizing an army for a war such as this will not be so simple

    26. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, in the future, we could easily have high tech opponents. You are very naive.

    27. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by mabhatter654 · · Score: 2

      The bigger purpose is that those planes flying are pushing 30 years since they started production. Even the F35 is already 10 years old, with it's capabilities known and not actually shipping. What's missing is urgency. The need for these planes is in ten more years.

      The biggest thing these bring to the table is standardization between branches. Even as far back as Bush 1 and Clinton the need was seen for a 72-hour strike capability. Meaning they want to have more flexible missions so they can send teams to use the nearest resources quickly refit rather than moving whole wings around the world. It also thins out the number of models fighters and allows us to share parts and crew with allies.

      The idea was sound when we were looking to actually balance a budget. It's a page right out of FedEx or Southwest's operations.

    28. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by mabhatter654 · · Score: 1

      Aluminum airframe craft must be replaced after a certain amount of time. Aluminum doesn't rust, but it fatigues under stress and vibration. There is a point after time where the failure becomes a fact under normal operation, unlike with steel used to frame buildings.

      So you can spend time getting behind, or work on the next plane. The real problem is that the F35 is a cost-reduced version of the F22 that was in production. Even taking 5 years was too long really.

    29. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by blindseer · · Score: 1

      Something tells me that a whole lot of technology to do this has come from the F-35 project. That stealth technology you reference was most likely one of the technologies refined in the development of the F-35.

      --
      I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
    30. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by jwhitener · · Score: 1

      I think it should be possible to remain technologically advanced without spending as much as the US does.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures

      You have to combine the next 20 countries' military spending before it even approaches the US spending levels.

    31. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by couchslug · · Score: 3

      The planes it's intended to replace are WEARING OUT. They are old designs and old fleets. Google is thy friend. New aircraft to replace structurally compromised airframes and attrition losses will be required. Flying hundreds of thousands of sorties in recent decades wears out structure, not just easily replaceable parts.

      "The pilots and ground crews are already trained."

      Training is ongoing. It's not terribly hard to train on different aircraft. It certainly makes more versatile troops and was one much more common. Airframes are less diverse nowadays.

      "The spare parts are already bought and paid for and in the warehouse."

      Spares buys are ongoing as is support equipment procurement and maintenance. Modifications mean many previously procured parts and line replaceable units are obsolete.

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    32. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by Jonner · · Score: 1

      The F-35 is supposed to be more effective than each of the aircraft it's intended to replace, though I know some are skeptical that it will be an improvement over either the F-16 or A-10. Though it may turn out that building and maintaining F-35s is more expensive than maintaining the older models indefinitely, that's not a logical certainty. Some of the designs it's intended to replace aren't being made at all any more, so re-starting production could be a huge cost. It's often the case that newer equipment designs are inherently less expensive to maintain while being more effective though there unfortunately doesn't seem to be as much incentive for military contractors produce efficient designs as in the civilian markets. That's supposed to be the case for the F-35, but given its history so far, it's easy to be skeptical.

    33. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by lennier · · Score: 1

      You just know someone, eventually, is going to launch nuclear weapons. If we can stop that, we should.

      You know, there's a really simple way for America to stop at least one of those countries from launching nuclear weapons: shut them off.

      --
      You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
    34. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      These shiny gadgets were born out of the cold war, but that's over. Does anyone think China would want a military confrontation with any of its largest customers? Do people really think Russia is likely to rise again?

      Yes, and yes, respectively.

    35. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by mbkennel · · Score: 1

      I
      " guess that the point that the GP is making is that the rest of the world has understood that big war confrontation with the US is not winnable and therefore have chosen other roads, as illustrated by the complete lack of efficiency the US have against the current crop of terrorist."

      Actually, since 2006 (when Bush fired Rumsfeld, put Cheney in a box, and started listening to his father) the US has been quite effective against this current crop of terrorist, probably second only to the Mossad in the 1960's/1970's.

    36. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by gmhowell · · Score: 1

      If I were put in charge I would make fewer toys but make them in greater numbers. I believe a future confrontation with Russia/China is likely, and my toys would be oriented towards this goal.

      Trying to beat the Russians or the Chinese with raw numbers? THAT sounds like a winning strategy...

      --
      Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
    37. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by gmhowell · · Score: 1

      Why?
      You think we are going to forget how to build them?

      Once upon a time, someone asked the same question about the Saturn V.

      --
      Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
    38. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by gmhowell · · Score: 1

      in 2020 you don't want to be relying on aircraft and parts made in 1996

      Don't let B-52 crews know about that.

      --
      Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
    39. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by arose · · Score: 1

      I'm not entirely sure I even understand what kind of war would require the F-35.

      One that would end in a nuke exchange if the conventional fighting wouldn't end in a draw.

      --
      Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
    40. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope, the F16 maintenance costs gets larger when the planes get older. So we will eventually reach a point when it would make economical sense to get new planes.

      Besides, the F16s now spend more time in repair than operational

    41. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by jgtg32a · · Score: 1

      Tom Clancy is that you?

      If it is you seriously write that book, it sounds awesome.

    42. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by mcvos · · Score: 1

      But one big question is: Even if the old planes are wearing out, are the old designs really outdated? Airplane (especially jet fighter) technology went through the roof between the '30s and the '70. Yet we don't seem to be able to really improve upon the designs of the '70s without budgets going through the roof.

      Maybe technology reached a plateau in the '70s? We can put better computers and radars in, but in the end, we may be running into the limits of what's physically possible. A fighter that can do everything the F16 can, but with supersonic cruise, VTOL and stealth for a reasonable price may just not be possible. Each individually is already a pretty hard problem. Maybe our expectations are just too high, and we should be betting on a slightly smaller improvement for a much smaller price.

    43. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by couchslug · · Score: 1

      "Even if the old planes are wearing out, are the old designs really outdated?"

      Yes they are. Lack of stealth is a critical fault which cannot be remedied.

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    44. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by mcvos · · Score: 1

      Is it really that critical? It's certainly nice to have, but it's also very expensive. I don't know of any stealth plane that is not hideously expensive. And while stealth certainly has its place, a lot of fighters seem to be quite effective without it. All those planes without stealth are still being used and sent into real combat situations. With living people on board, even!

      It's quite possible that for situations too dangerous for living pilots, disposable drones might end up being more economical than expensive stealth fighters.

    45. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No offense but all the military tech in the world literally and outside this world did not stop the horrors of 911. look at it this way you simply can not cover all bases at all times form all things.
      I have a better solution how about we fight wars like this.
      The president and his top men, as well as the generals, their top men and their families. All be put in a room each with a gun. The same gun and 1 clip full of rounds, say 12 rounds. The doors are sealed and no body is let out till the impending war is resolved.

      See money saved, war averted and no need to wast it on crap that will never be used properly.

    46. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by Moofie · · Score: 1

      Do you know how airframe maintenance works? It's not a matter of spare parts bought and paid for in a warehouse.

      I'm not saying that F-35 is a well-managed program, or even a successful design. (Time will tell, probably on both.) I will tell you, though, that maintenance costs on aging airframes, particularly on tactical aircraft, get scary big scary fast.

      --
      Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
    47. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by Moofie · · Score: 1

      Tooling recapitalization, how does that work?

      --
      Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
    48. Re:Affordable replacement for something paid for by Pence128 · · Score: 1

      tldr: the cold war is still on, arms race forever.

      --
      404: sig not found.
  12. Marine version tripped up the whole program by Big_Breaker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's the VTOL/STOL version for the marines that bogged the whole program down. It was just too ambious and when this became obvious the "solution" was to put almost all the focus on the Marine version to push it through. They should have paused the Marine version instead, met all the objectives for the convential and carrier versions, then come back to the marines. In 5 or 10 years we'll be smarter about how to do it, where the airframe can be lightened, how to put more thrust in the engines, etc.

    1. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by perpenso · · Score: 1

      On the other hand the Marines needed a replacement more than the other services. The Marine version should probably be the last to cut, not the first. They have a unique need for VSTOL. Amphibious assault ships fill a very important niche and history has shown having Marine aviation near Marine ground forces can be quite critical.

    2. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by Rich0 · · Score: 1

      Why not just have the Navy fill this niche? Why do the planes need to launch from a particular class of ship? Why do they need to land on improvised fields? Just what kind of war could having this particular plane help win that would otherwise be lost?

    3. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by 0123456 · · Score: 1

      Just what kind of war could having this particular plane help win that would otherwise be lost?

      The Falklands?

      Though, admittedly, the US Navy could spare more than enough real carriers to fight a war of that size and wouldn't have to send fighter/bombers out there on container ships.

      Of course one of the other big benefits of VTOL is that you can land in weather where no-one would even consider conventional carrier operations. Hovering until you spot an empty piece of deck is easier than smashing down onto a deck you can barely see.

    4. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      A pointless war? Over a couple sheep and some rocks?

      A better policy might just be informing the occupants of said pile of rocks to GTFO or you will bomb it until it is below sea level. If you really desire to get them off such useless property.

    5. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by 0123456 · · Score: 1

      A pointless war? Over a couple sheep and some rocks?

      No, over political prestige and possibly enormous oil reserves.

      A better policy might just be informing the occupants of said pile of rocks to GTFO or you will bomb it until it is below sea level. If you really desire to get them off such useless property.

      The RAF bombing British people on the Falklands might not be considered a good idea. And burning 250,000 gallons of fuel to drop 22,000 pounds of bombs from a Vulcan wouldn't make it very cost-effectve compared to flying Harriers off of whatever ships were available. I seem to remember that one of them even landed on a ship's helipad when they couldn't find the carrier; good luck doing that with an F-16.

    6. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by Baloroth · · Score: 1

      The F-35B is supposed to go on "probation". Actually, the British were almost as important in trying to make the F-35B work as the Marines were, since the British want to replace the Harrier, and their smaller carriers wouldn't work with the regular F-35. Then they decided the F-35C would work, so they changed their order and the B is probably going on hold.

      --
      "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
    7. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by Big_Breaker · · Score: 1

      It's not that the Marines don't deserve an upgraded capability - the harrier is old, old, old... It's just too hard to meet all their objectives:

      Supersonic, VTOL, stealth

      Pick 2, not 3 - that is if you want a jet that can be made with today's technology in numbers that matter. I don't think stealth or supersonic speed are critical to the Marines. Isn't the purpose for the marines air support? I would pick stealth over SS and make sure to have a stand off air to air capability to defeat a limited air defense. If you need more than that, you need a carrier group.

    8. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agreed. There are many different ways of skinning this cat, and the F-35B is arguably the worst way to do it. The Navy can provide carrier-based air support. The Marines can send in attack helicopters from amphibious assault ships, and bring them forward with them as they push inland. The air force can provide many different flavors of air cover, including the gold standard for close air support, the A-10. There are also programs exploring the use of modified T-6 Texan IIs or Brazillian-made Tucanos to provide close air support. The A-10, AT-6, and Tucano can all be flown from relatively austere locations close to the troops, meaning that the time to bring force to bear is pretty darn short. Compare that to the F-35B, which has extremely limited payload capacity, limited loiter time, and almost assuredly higher maintenance requirements, and you've got the worst possible close air support platform. By the way, there is plenty of precedent for the Marines to have fighters that don't actually get launched on a regular basis from carriers or assault ships. The F4U Corsair in WW2 was carrier-capable, but much more commonly followed the Marines by island hopping. Remove the arbitrary requirement that the plane MUST be launched from a Marine amphibious assault ship, and a lot of much more attractive options open up.

    9. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by Richard_at_work · · Score: 0

      Except we did use the Vulcan to bomb the Falklands, there were 7 missions in total...

      The bomb load of the Vulcan was such that it would have needed several sorties from each Harrier in the task force to put the same amount of ordnance on Stanley, so the planners went with the Vulcan. That and the psychological effect of proving to the Argentinians that we could put a heavy bomber very close to their main land, making their bases a prime target...

    10. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      Marines fly F-18s from carriers now. Marines have been flying CAS long before their was a Harrier so no they do not have to have them on the Assault ships. You are right they the do need replacements very badly but they need to replace the F-18s they use the most. They did not get the E/F Super Hornet and their Hornets are really getting close to EOL.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    11. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by perpenso · · Score: 2

      Why not just have the Navy fill this niche? Why do the planes need to launch from a particular class of ship? Why do they need to land on improvised fields? Just what kind of war could having this particular plane help win that would otherwise be lost?

      The reason the Marines have their own air is that Marine pilots are better specialized and trained for close air support of infantry. To become a pilot in the Marines you *must* first become an infantry platoon commander.

      Historically Marines having aircraft near the infantry has been critical. Conventional jets like the F/A-18 can not operate from the crude dirt strips that the WW2 and Korean era aircraft could. Having VTOL like the Harrier returned such a capability to the Marines.

      History also shows that the Navy is not always willing to put the full sized aircraft carriers in the vicinity of Marines. For example during the Guadalcanal campaign of WW2. The naval vessels in the immediate vicinity of Guadalcanal were generally surface ships; battleships, cruisers and destroyers engaging in old fashioned gunfights. Assault ships being specialized for delivery and support of Marines, not so much for fleet defense, would be more likely to be left in such an environment.

      Having aircraft literally some very small number of minutes away can be critical. I believe the Marines demonstrated this during the retreat from the Chosin Reservoir during the Korean war, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chosin_Reservoir. The airstrips used were sometimes recently constructed dirt strips. More recently: "On 20 March 2011, USMC AV-8Bs were launched from USS Kearsarge in support of Operation Odyssey Dawn, enforcing the UN no-fly zone over Libya. They carried out air strikes on Sirte on 5 April 2011. Multiple AV-8Bs were involved in the defense of a downed F-15E pilot, attacking approaching Libyans prior to the pilot's extraction by MV-22 Osprey."
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AV8B#United_States_Marine_Corps

    12. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Marine aviation near Marine ground forces

      Here's the real problem in my opinion... separate and overlapping programs.

      Definition of Marine (dictionary.com): marine /mrin/ [muh-reen] adjective
      1. Of or pertaining to the sea; existing in or produced by the sea: marine vegetation.
      2. Pertaining to navigation or shipping; nautical; naval; maritime.
      3. Serving on shipboard, as soldiers.
      4. Of or belonging to the marines.
      5. Adapted for use at sea: a marine barometer.

      Please explain to me why a marine force should be a separate entity from the navy, as well as having dedicated naval, land, and air offensive capabilities. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the forces/equipment aren't needed, just that having one Commander in Chief overseeing four major armed forces branch with overlapping abilities, plus all the separate intelligence agencies, seems to be a good way of making sure no one has any idea what's going on because of the dozen or so different gov't branches each working on their own agendas (nevermind the quagmire of the defence contractors each trying to get ahead by any means necessary).

    13. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by oodaloop · · Score: 1

      Because the Marines use Amphib ships that require short takoff. The Navy has their planes on carriers, and there are fewer of them. So the Marine Expeditionary Units (MUEs) would have their own aircraft without having to reply on some carrier 500 miles away.

      --
      Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
    14. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      No, over political prestige
      I did mention pointless already.

      possibly enormous oil reserves.
      And maybe a big mountain made of candy! How about determining if it is worth fighting over first?

      The RAF bombing British people on the Falklands might not be considered a good idea.
      If there are all these brits on the islands, why are they not fighting off the occupiers.

    15. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by perpenso · · Score: 1

      Marines fly F-18s from carriers now.

      My understanding is that Marines have always been rotated on and off of carriers to some degree and that Marines pilots have always been required to be carrier qualified, and their aircraft were always required to be carrier capable. The later being the reason the Marines were not allowed to take the A-10s from the Air Force when the AF wanted to get rid of them.

      Marines have been flying CAS long before their was a Harrier so no they do not have to have them on the Assault ships.

      And long ago includes WW2 and Korean era aircraft that could operate from improvised dirt strips. F/A-18s can not operate from such an area, AV-8B Harriers can. The AV-8B returned this capability to the Marines. OV-10 Broncos and such did not really fulfill this lost niche.

    16. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      While I agree with this, the problem here is that the Marines had no backup plan. At least the Navy could reply on the newer Super Hornets F-18 variant, but the Marines have been stubbornly staying with the older F-18 variants, and have pushed off having anything to do with Super Hornets in favor of the F-35. Well, guess what: they put all their eggs in one basket and are now stuck waiting an extra 5 years because of it.

    17. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by Rich0 · · Score: 1

      Why does the carrier need to be 500 miles away?

      We haven't even done a serious amphibious assault since WWII, though I understand that a few more recent conflicts involved some landings (probably all lightly opposed). If you really were to face an opposed landing, wouldn't you want those carriers covering you? Otherwise those nice close-air-support aircraft that the marines fly are going to be chopped to pieces by air superiority fighters flown by the enemy.

      I just am not understanding the threat model here. If you're going up against barbarians with RPGs and spears then helicopters should do the trick, but chances are we'll still be dropping JDAMs on them. If you're going up against China in a war over Taiwan or something then frankly you need everything you have and you're in for quite a fight. I don't see where having a VTOL-capable jet is going to make much difference compared to what you'd get if you just spent that money on Naval or Air Force gear.

    18. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by Rich0 · · Score: 1

      Well, you can always stick Marine pilots in FA-18s or whatever, so the training in close air support isn't really a reason to buy a particular plane but just a matter of military politics.

      Nobody is going to be fighting a campaign the size of the WWII pacific theater with our current Navy, I suspect that if we care enough about territory that we're willing to lose a few thousand marines in a day in an opposed landing then chances are we'll have every carrier in the fleet backing them up. Once you've landed in a modern war chances are those forces are going to stick around for a long time. Now, in WWII when one island had a secure beachhead the Navy would sail off to start working on the next island or whatever, but island hopping isn't really something I see happening in the future, and I can't think of a lot of situations where you'd otherwise need to have a bunch of little fixed airstrips without carriers nearby.

      Maybe the solution is to just give the Marines their own plane or something, if it really is a need. I'm not sure it really even needs to be VTOL so much as STOL, and that can just be something with big unswept wings that is subsonic. You're not going to be using aircraft like this for air superiority.

    19. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      It also includes Vietnam. And when have the Marines had to operate Harriers out of grass strips. BTW you so do not want to operate a Harrier off of a Grass or dirt strip. You are going to have real issues with FOD if you do. Off a road or parking lot is an option.
      VSTOL is a nice capability but the price of it is really high, in this case it may be too high. Could the Marines do CAS with carrier based F-35s? I would say yes.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    20. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by perpenso · · Score: 1

      The Air Force and Navy are not all that interested in close air support. You mention the A-10, the AF didn't want it and tried to get rid of it once they had it. To avoid a redundant post here see http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2513426&cid=37977968

    21. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's the VTOL/STOL version for the marines that bogged the whole program down. It was just too ambious and when this became obvious the "solution" was to put almost all the focus on the Marine version to push it through. They should have paused the Marine version instead, met all the objectives for the convential and carrier versions, then come back to the marines.

      There were plenty of other things that bogged things down other than the Marine model. One of the great cost savings was supposed to be commonality of parts. But when a structural member needs to be aluminum in the Air Force version (to meet weight and endurance goals) and titanium in the Navy version (to take the shock of a carrier landing more than a few times), the fact that you're making both parts from the same drawing saves you little; the savings was supposed to come from commonality of spare parts. Pausing the Marine version wouldn't stop the bleeding and would just screw over the Marines relative to the other services, and the program people knew it.

      In 5 or 10 years we'll be smarter about how to do it, where the airframe can be lightened, how to put more thrust in the engines, etc.

      There was a rather convincing presentation going around a year ago showing that the F-35 won't handle re-engining well, because you just can't get enough mass flow through the intakes. Also, I haven't seen any aircraft that got lighter with successive revisions; they usually get heavier. Do you have an example?

    22. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by perpenso · · Score: 2

      Well, you can always stick Marine pilots in FA-18s or whatever, so the training in close air support isn't really a reason to buy a particular plane but just a matter of military politics.

      Marines do fly FA-18s from carriers and ground bases, but not from the small assault ships.

      Nobody is going to be fighting a campaign the size of the WWII pacific theater ...

      I am not suggesting such a war. What I am point out is that the Navy is willing to send Marines into an area they are *not* willing to send an aircraft carrier. Amphibious assault ships fill that gap.

      ... I suspect that if we care enough about territory that we're willing to lose a few thousand marines in a day in an opposed landing then chances are we'll have every carrier in the fleet backing them up.

      Carriers left the immediate vicinity after the landing. But heavily fighting continued for quite some time.

      Once you've landed in a modern war chances are those forces are going to stick around for a long time.

      I don't see that as realistic. It seems quite probable that the Navy would once again remove a big expensive difficult to replace and few in number aircraft carrier from the immediate vicinity of a contested area.

    23. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by oodaloop · · Score: 1

      The MEUs (I can't believe I spelled that wrong the first time) do lots of operations, most of which are not on the news. Used to be called Military Operations Other Than War (MOOTW), now Stability Operations. Stuff like Non-combatant Evacuation Operation (NEO), like when we need to get our people out of an Embassy somewhere. Helos can only go so far inland and are no match for anything fixed wing, and might not be able to fly above or otherwise evade surface threats. The original invasion of Afghanistan was an amphibious landing, the farthest inland ever done. Helos flew over Pakistan, and everyone else drove. The MEUs are our nation's 911 force, a regiment sized unit with multiple capabilities, able to get anywhere in 72 hours. But if it's not on the water, or in range of helos, not so much. I agree the cost is too much, but having a vstol stealth jet was going to be a huge force multiplier for the Marines. It would mean faster response with better capabilities with longer range and less risk to Marine pilots.

      --
      Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
    24. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by perpenso · · Score: 2

      We haven't even done a serious amphibious assault since WWII, ...

      A large amphibious Marine force was poised off of Kuwait/Iraq during the first gulf war. Saddam expected it to land and kept significant forces near the beach to oppose them. This lessened the forces the actual assault had to deal with. This amphibious force also constituted a major and mobile reserve force should the need suddenly arise if things did not go as planned elsewhere.

      If you really were to face an opposed landing, wouldn't you want those carriers covering you?

      The problem is that history shows the carriers do not necessarily loiter in the region after the landings. An amphibious assault ship is more likely to do so.

      I don't see where having a VTOL-capable jet is going to make much difference compared to what you'd get if you just spent that money on Naval or Air Force gear.

      To avoid some redundancy ... The Air Force and Navy are not that interested, http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2513426&cid=37977968. And history shows that aircraft capable of operating from improvised airfields can be quite valuable, as the WW2 and Korean era aircraft demonstrated. Note that the Korean war is an example of something between an insurgent uprising and all out world war.

    25. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by mosb1000 · · Score: 1

      Don't they have A-10s for close air support?

    26. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by perpenso · · Score: 1

      Don't they have A-10s for close air support?

      The Air Force leadership never wanted the A-10. It was forced upon them. At the first opportunity to get rid of the A-10 the AF wanted to do so. The Marines were very interested but the Navy leadership said no, the A-10 was not designed to operate from aircraft carriers. So the A-10s went to the Air National Guard.

    27. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by bryan1945 · · Score: 1

      That's good, because I see many enemy tanks invading the US in the near future. OK, I know the Nat Guard is now going overseas, just sounds weird.

      --
      Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
    28. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by Agripa · · Score: 1

      If there are all these brits on the islands, why are they not fighting off the occupiers.

      With what? Harsh language?

      Even with the civilian firearms that they are not permitted, the correlation of forces and terrain would be unpleasant in that case.

    29. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by perpenso · · Score: 1

      That's good, because I see many enemy tanks invading the US in the near future. OK, I know the Nat Guard is now going overseas, just sounds weird.

      I get that. But the truth is that the guard has always been going overseas. As jets entered service after WW2 a lot of P-51 Mustangs went into the guard. During the Korea war some of these guard units were activated and sent to Korea for close air support, jets were too fast. The guard took a lot of casualties since fighters are also pretty vulnerable in this role. Something that had been shown in WW2 also. Yet the AF argued they didn't need the A-10, that F-16s would do just fine.

    30. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by mosb1000 · · Score: 1

      Seems like the A-10 does a better job at close air support though.

    31. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by dbIII · · Score: 1

      If there are all these brits on the islands, why are they not fighting off the occupiers.

      Lack of numbers, lack of training, no weapons suitable to stop a major amphibious landing, no civilian tanks, no civilian jet fighters, no civilian anti-missile defences - are you feeling stupid yet or shall I continue?

    32. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > It's the VTOL/STOL version for the marines that bogged the whole program down. It was just too ambious

      The weird thing is, the JSF is based on the design of the russian Yakovlev Yak-141, which was a purely VSTOL naval fighter jet prototype from 1988 that never got further due to lack of funds and some tech problems. In 1995 Pres. Jeltsin sold it wholesale to the USA for 300 million USD. Therefore the JSF is based on a VSTOL airframe and the land based and CATOBAR F-35 variants are retro-active strippings of an originally VSTOL airframe. Uncle Sam probably would have bettet been off with a fully domestically developed alternative, like that ugly Boeing/Hawker XF-32 competitor.

    33. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by perpenso · · Score: 1

      Seems like the A-10 does a better job at close air support though.

      However the Air Force leadership is more interested in air superiority, deep strikes at high value or strategic assets, etc. The A-10 can not be used in these roles, it is a highly specialized single role aircraft. Low, slow and close to the ground is not how the AF likes to fly. By arguing that the F-16 could perform the close air support role the AF leadership would end up with more aircraft that could perform these other roles, more planes that go fast. Greater casualties during close air support missions flown with F-16s were apparently a lesser consideration.

      Note that the AF is not inherently against specialized single purpose aircraft, as long as it is for a role they prefer. Their dream project of that era was the F-15. A motto used during its design was supposedly "not a pound for air-to-ground."

    34. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by jgtg32a · · Score: 1

      Please explain to me why a marine force should be a separate entity from the navy, as well as having dedicated naval, land, and air offensive capabilities.

      You answered your own question

      Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the forces/equipment aren't needed, just that having one Commander in Chief overseeing four major armed forces branch with overlapping abilities, plus all the separate intelligence agencies, seems to be a good way of making sure no one has any idea what's going on

      The Marines have a bit of everything, and have a single chain of command. They don't have to rely on others to do their job.

    35. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      The pashtun in Afghanistan have none of that and are still giving the coalition a hard time.

    36. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Boeing did this in competition on spec and lost the contract because of it.

    37. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by Rich0 · · Score: 1

      I agree that having the amphibious assault capability is good. My point wasn't that we haven't done it because Marines aren't useful - rather we haven't done it because amphibious assaults tend to result in a lot of dead bodies. If we ever did do one then chances are we'd do all we can to keep those bodies to a minimum.

      Well, the Navy and Air Force not being interested is a political issue - if this is the best solution then you make them get interested if you want the capability.

      WWII was a bit of an unusual situation in that the enemy had a serious navy that had to be contended with. The fleet carriers were busy trying to control the entire theater and didn't have time to spend on one beachhead once they finished escorting the invasion fleet. Plus there were other options since short-field aircraft were more practical when that term described almost everything flying.

      If the F35 did work I agree it might have value. It just seems like it would make more sense to just dedicate an airframe to this kind of role rather than making something that replaced both the harrier and the F18 at the same time.

      I suspect some of the budget issue is the fact that international buyers are going to be disproportionately interested in the Marine role, since nobody else has carriers like the US. The Naval version would be useless to anybody but the US Navy. The F16 replacement would be broadly usable.

    38. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by perpenso · · Score: 1

      We have two options. Force the Air Force and Navy to give more consideration to close air support. Or allow the Army and Marines to focus on close air support and let the AF and Navy focus on air superiority in the area (and deep strikes outside the area). I tend to favor the later, it seems a more natural division of effort. Cost and efficiency problems seems to be a matter of the redundancy in the current system.

      I agree the the F-35B has problems. I am just not convinced that the most cost effective solution would be to start a new STOVL design (not that you are claiming we should do so). The costs already sunk into the F-35 are gone forever, I think the real question is how much will it cost to move forward. I am also reminded of the problems with the original VTOL AV-8A Harrier. Perhaps a good way to proceed is to slow down manufacturing and delivery so we only get a relatively small number of the initial version (AV-8A'ish) that will undoubtedly manifest various problems and ramp up production on a later version that works out various issues (AV-8B'ish).

      Perhaps its getting overly technical but I'm not entirely sure its fair to say the F-35B (STOVL Harrier replacement) and the F-35C (conventional landing F-18 replacement) are the same airframe. I can see arguments either way. Perhaps in a literal airframe sense its true but given the difference on the inside I think a little relaxation of the term is warranted. I think the stealthy requirement is sort of forcing this approach.

      All that said, I would be thrilled to see a modernized carrier variant of the A-10 developed for the Marines. Not every aircraft needs to be stealthy.

      FWIW, the WW2 carriers were not absent from Guadalcanal because they had other demands in the theatre. They were in fact supporting Guadalcanal, just from a far greater distance than may have been optimal. They were too valuable to risk so they hand to stand off a bit. I don't think such considerations are absent today.

    39. Re:Marine version tripped up the whole program by Moofie · · Score: 1

      The Air Force has A-10s. The Marines do not.

      --
      Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
  13. Best comment in article: by sbrown123 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    “A lot of design compromises were made especially to give the Marine Corps the STOVL capability which, by the way, they’ve never used in combat,” he said. “And who says the Marines need a fast jet in combat?” said McPeak, now chairman of Ethicspoint Inc., a consulting firm in Lake Oswego, Oregon.

    1. Re:Best comment in article: by fortapocalypse · · Score: 1

      In Aliens 2, the marines rode in a pretty slow spaceship, well, compared to Star Trek. That is the future. Slow space harriers.

    2. Re:Best comment in article: by 0123456 · · Score: 3, Informative

      “A lot of design compromises were made especially to give the Marine Corps the STOVL capability which, by the way, they’ve never used in combat,” he said.

      The British routinely used thrust-vectoring in combat with their Harriers; I'd be surprised if the Marines didn't take advantage of the same capability. Of course with the F-35's lift fan design I presume it can't use vectored thrust in forward flight?

    3. Re:Best comment in article: by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      I do not believe so.
      The normal F-35 does not have it either. Yet, another step backward from the F-22.

    4. Re:Best comment in article: by CannonballHead · · Score: 1

      “A lot of design compromises were made especially to give the Marine Corps the STOVL capability which, by the way, they’ve never used in combat,”

      Do they currently have that capability? If not, how could they have actually used it in combat already? ...

    5. Re:Best comment in article: by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      Do you really not know what a Harrier Jump jet is?
      Are you not able to access google?

      Out Demons of stupidity and Ignorance, be gone from this poor fellow!
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrier_Jump_Jet

    6. Re:Best comment in article: by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      Doesn't the F35 use a combination of thrust vectoring and lift-fan? I'd have thought this would allow similar capabilities. Or am I missing something obvious here?

    7. Re:Best comment in article: by Baloroth · · Score: 1

      According to Wikipedia, the Harrier only uses thrust-vectoring for VTOL, not for higher manuverability. The F-35A and C don't have vectoring at all, apparently. The advantage to the way the F-35B works is over twice the loaded weight of the Harrier for short-take-offs, and I'm guessing much higher carry-home weight as well (for vertical-landing). It would probably work for combat uses too, although I'm only guessing.

      --
      "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
    8. Re:Best comment in article: by AdmV0rl0n · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The US Marines were the origin of the vectoring in forward flight move. This provides the old harrier with at least one move that almost nothing can hang with in combat. The brits took that and used it (I'm a brit).

      In the falklands - the harrier force had pretty much everything on paper against them. Their enemies had range, they had surprise, they had speed, they had superior planes within the envelope. The fact is that the Harriers did what they have always done. They did a remarkable job well beyond their supposed envelope, and worked in the most hostile environment. They have a questionable repair rate in peacetime, with aircraft going down. In the falklands - the fact is their had a fantastic record in terms of unservicablility - very little time was lost to them not being available. And they proved more robust than the paper claims of certain marine generals would like to paint - coming back with AA shell holes in them and 'I counted them all out, and I counted them all in' being famous words.

      This aircraft which started as a bit of a flying machine people did not know what to use it for, became a weapon system that had limited punch (its weight limits, especially in hot and high are very limiting) and limited range meant it had questions. But often overlooked, you could put the things in a field behind you and hit the enemy in front. Close support was never as practically close as with the harrier. And the fact is it may not be the best, in fact its had many cases where its become clear it was not the best. But its also been there, used, available, and in the action for a very long time. Its (or I should say it was..) a brilliant functional, cost effective chunk of weaponary that was very very useful to have in your pocket.

      The brits retired the joint harrier force recently, and this is supposedly for the J35. The J35 looks to me, a poor aircraft all round. Its a horrible mish mash of requirments and hashed up garbage. We would have been better off with a new modification program, or even a new production run of harriers.

      The J35 isn't going to be better and replace the A10, The Harrier and strike planes like the F16. Well, it is, but its going to be worse than all three in their primary roles. It will be worse at tank killing. It will be worse as a VTOL/STOL rugged cheap fighter/bomber and it won't strike or fight as well as the F16. In fact, I would put money on the F16 beating it time after time in AC.

      As it stands right now, at least in the case of the UK - there is a blindness thats similar to the pre-vietnam US fascination with missiles. The theory is that everything is tech based. So now you have UK fighter pilots being so under trained they are losing in dogfighting contests against Pakistani air force F16s while being sat in EuroFighter Typhoons - and all because they are not allowed to burn the fuel, spend the training time - or threaten the expensive airframes/flying hours..

      The prior comment about STOVL is relevant- because the harrier really is pressed in some situations in regard to load. Hot and high being a serious limit on its direct lift ability. This matters less if you have them on large carriers where take off and landing room is plentiful, so no need to overly cripple the flights / weight/ weapon load.

      --
      We`re all equal .. Just some of us are less equal than others.
    9. Re:Best comment in article: by WolfWalker545 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I guess those operations off the USS Tarawa and USS Nassau during Desert Shield and Desert Storm weren't combat (note, the Tarawa and Nassau are amphibious assault ships, they can support VTOL airplanes and helicopters but not conventional carrier aircraft such as the F/A-18 Hornet), operations off the Nassau and Kearsage during Bosnia, and operations in both Afghanistan and Iraq in the current wars. During the Iraq invasion, forward arming/refueling points were established for the Harriers, allowing for more combat operations without requiring a full airbase. Of course, McPeak was Air Force (and not particularly popular there), so his knowledge of Marine operations is likely limited, and his impartiality is in question since Marine aviation competes with the Air Force for the close air support role.

    10. Re:Best comment in article: by bugs2squash · · Score: 1

      Surely all it needs for VTOL is a very long extendable nose wheel.

      --
      Nullius in verba
    11. Re:Best comment in article: by DerekLyons · · Score: 1

      The British routinely used thrust-vectoring in combat with their Harriers

      On the contrary - the British never used VIFF in combat. On the other hand, while it was never used in combat, STOVL was and is used on a daily basis to land and take off from LHA's and Brit's baby flattops.

    12. Re:Best comment in article: by idontgno · · Score: 1

      "And who says the Marines need a fast jet in combat?" said McPeak, now chairman of Ethicspoint Inc., a consulting firm in Lake Oswego, Oregon.

      This would be retired Air Force General Merrill McPeak. A life-long Tactical Air Command officer and rated fighter pilot. The most heavily indoctrinated and most influential officer in air doctrine circles in the early '90s. And, in keeping with that background, having absolutely no use for "fast jets" for any service but the Air Force. And by Air Force, I mean exclusively the Tactical Air Command or its post-1992-replacement, Air Combat Command.

      The Air Force Chief of Staff which oversaw the ultimate triumph of the TAC Mafia in gunning down Strategic Air Command.

      Yaaaah. Yeah, he's an unbiased commentator.

      --
      Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
    13. Re:Best comment in article: by perpenso · · Score: 1

      "And who says the Marines need a fast jet in combat?" said McPeak, now chairman of Ethicspoint Inc., a consulting firm in Lake Oswego, Oregon.

      This would be retired Air Force General Merrill McPeak. A life-long Tactical Air Command officer and rated fighter pilot. The most heavily indoctrinated and most influential officer in air doctrine circles in the early '90s. And, in keeping with that background, having absolutely no use for "fast jets" for any service but the Air Force. And by Air Force, I mean exclusively the Tactical Air Command or its post-1992-replacement, Air Combat Command.

      The Air Force Chief of Staff which oversaw the ultimate triumph of the TAC Mafia in gunning down Strategic Air Command.

      Yaaaah. Yeah, he's an unbiased commentator.

      To help those unfamiliar with Tactical Air Command, tactical is not necessarily used in the close air support sense. That is one role, but not what is considered the primary role, air superiority. Tactical is more in the sense: not the part of the AF that will attempt to fly to the Soviet Union and nuke it. To get a more realistic perspective on the Air Force leadership's concern regarding close air support look at the A-10. They didn't want it. It was forced upon them. They tried to get rid of it at the first opportunity. They were eager to give them to the Marines, the Navy intervened and said no. History then intervened in Iraq and forced the AF to keep the A-10 a bit longer.

      The AF claimed they could use F-16s for close air support (CAS), despite the fact that F-16s are not as capable in this mission and are far more vulnerable. What made the F-16 superior in the role of CAS to the AF was that it could be also used in the real AF mission, air superiority. The A-10 could not be use in that role.

    14. Re:Best comment in article: by 0123456 · · Score: 3, Informative

      According to Wikipedia, the Harrier only uses thrust-vectoring for VTOL, not for higher manuverability.

      I see your Wikipedia and raise you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vectoring_nozzles

      "Vectoring nozzles can also be used for "viffing"—e.g. a rapid braking allowing a chasing fighter jet to overtake thus bringing itself into the range of forward firing weapons. "Viffing" - or Vectoring In Forward Flight was used to great effect during the Anglo-Argentian Falklands War, where 28 Royal Navy and 6 RAF jets did not incur any losses in dogfighting against a force of more than 200 Argentine Air Force jets."

      It also says that there's little evidence that they used it for tighter turns in combat, but Harrier pilots have written glowingly about the delights of vectored thrust for dogfighting (e.g. turning inside other aircraft at low speeds and using the wing to hide the exhaust from IR missiles).

    15. Re:Best comment in article: by dbIII · · Score: 1

      According to Wikipedia, the Harrier only uses thrust-vectoring for VTOL, not for higher manuverability

      According to news reports on the war in the Falklands and a lot of other sources since (including film clips you can track down and watch, probably even on Youtube) it has been used that way.
      Looking at that simple list you've quoted you'll notice nothing is in two catagories, and it appears to be listing the primary use but not excluding the others (as you'd see if you look at other information on those aircraft). You really are attempting to draw a big conclusion from very limited information, and in this case coming up with something incorrect.

    16. Re:Best comment in article: by evilviper · · Score: 1

      On the contrary - the British never used VIFF in combat.

      TIME says you're wrong: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,951776,00.html

      On the other hand, while it was never used in combat, STOVL was and is used on a daily basis to land and take off from LHA's and Brit's baby flattops.

      STOVL never used in combat? What do the Brits do with their tiny aircraft carriers, then? Particularly during the Falklands war?

      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
    17. Re:Best comment in article: by DerekLyons · · Score: 1

      On the contrary - the British never used VIFF in combat.

      TIME says you're wrong: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,951776,00.html

      I get my information from naval historians, pilots who took part in the war, actual books, etc... Not thirty year old mass media accounts. Despite the urban legends that have circulated since the Falklands war, not one reliable source has ever confirmed the use of VIFF in combat and several have specifically denied it.

  14. Need troops for combat ... by perpenso · · Score: 1

    I think the recent trend also has a lot to do with the demand for troops for combat related assignments. The outsourcing of some support tasks makes uniformed personnel available for combat assignments. It might be similar to the various womens auxiliaries from WW2 where men were made available for combat. When overseas combat deployments decline we may see a reversal of the trend, perhaps MPs back at the gates, etc.

  15. They never learn. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 2, Informative
    Back in the 60s Robert McNamara pushed a "joint" fighter common to both Air Force and the Navy. Bean counter at heart, wanted to take advantages of economy of scale, synergy and the other buzzword bingo terms.

    Both sides hated it. Both Air Force and Navy worked hard to sabotage the project from get go. Navy insisted on side-by-side two seater fighter configuration, citing "visibility concerns on deck landings". Army insisted on ejection pod instead of ejection seats. And super sonic speed too. And maneuverability for deck landings too. By the time they got the specs done they got a "fighter" with thrust-to-weight ratio of some 0.5 or something, with barely better rate of climb and turn radius compared to even second world was fighters. The F111 Thunder Chief was a disaster even before it reached the drawing boards, it was a shame a plane with that kind of specs was given the F designation. F there definitely did not stand for Fighter. After sinking this, Navy got its way and got F-14 Tomcat and Air Force got its way and got F18 Eagle.

    That should have been an object lesson to any bean counter trying shoehorn specs from multiple services into a single air-frame. But they never learn, do they?

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    1. Re:They never learn. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1

      Sorry got the name wrong. Not Fire Chief, it was Aardvark. But rest of my recollection seems to be correct.

      --
      sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    2. Re:They never learn. by pkinetics · · Score: 1

      I think you mean the Air Force got the F16 Eagle. F18 is the Hornet.

      Additionally the F15 and F16 designs were rammed down the Air Force's throat. They wanted nothing to do with it. Heck, they really didn't want the F16.

      Read the biography on Colonel John Boyd, who designed the modern day air fighter.

    3. Re:They never learn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      F18 is the Hornet, F15 is the Eagle.

    4. Re:They never learn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      F15 = Eagle, F18 = Hornet

    5. Re:They never learn. by Rich0 · · Score: 2

      Gotta love bureaucracy, where even the secretary of defense is powerless to make a program happen.

      The solution isn't to give the bureaucrats what they want, but to tell them that if they don't want to do their jobs properly somebody else will.

    6. Re:They never learn. by coolmoose25 · · Score: 1

      Actually, the Air Force got the F-15 Eagle, and the F-16 Falcon (known by pilots as the Viper)

      The Navy got the F-14 Tomcat, and the F18 Hornet

      The Marines got the AV8-B - the Harrier of British design with VSTOL but not supersonic.

      Most of these can, or could, use similar engines... They can, or could use similar avionics and do use similar weapons systems including the Sidewinder Heat Seeking missile, and the AMRAAM (Advanced Medium Range Air To Air Missile). Only the Tomcat got the Phoenix, which was purpose built to be able to work with the Tomcat's radar that could track 18 targets and shoot at 6 of them.

      Bottom line is that we should allow the services to use DISSIMILAR airframes, but have them use common components like missiles, radars, and engines.

      --
      Brawndo: It's what plants crave!
    7. Re:They never learn. by A10Mechanic · · Score: 1

      F-15 Eagle (Air Force) F-18 Hornet (Navy) A-10 Thunderbolt II (Awesome)

    8. Re:They never learn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, F-15 is the Eagle. F-16 is the Fighting Falcon.

    9. Re:They never learn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      F15 is the Eagle.
      F16 is the Falcon. (Viper)

      Just sayin'.

    10. Re:They never learn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, the F16 is the Falcon
      The F15 is the Eagle
      And you are correct, the F18 is the Hornet

    11. Re:They never learn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think you mean the Air Force got the F16 Eagle. F18 is the Hornet.

      Additionally the F15 and F16 designs were rammed down the Air Force's throat. They wanted nothing to do with it. Heck, they really didn't want the F16.

      Read the biography on Colonel John Boyd, who designed the modern day air fighter.

      The F16 is the Fighting Falcon.
      The F-15 is the Eagle.

    12. Re:They never learn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The F16 is the Falcon. The F15 is the Eagle.

    13. Re:They never learn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That'd be the F16 Falcon and the F15 Eagle. Both of 'em are birds, but they are very, _very_ different designs.

    14. Re:They never learn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Man, it's the F-15 Eagle, the F-16 Falcon (usually called "Viper" by the flyboys). And the Army had nothing to do with the F-111. The Air Force may not have wanted the F-16 but they did want the F-15. It was a pure air-superiority fighter. They like that kind of thing. And bombers.

    15. Re:They never learn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      15 Eagle, 16 Falcon, 18 Hornet.

    16. Re:They never learn. by bkmoore · · Score: 1

      The thrust-to-weight ratio of the F-111 wasn't out of line for other second-generation jets of the era. The F-111 wasn't designed to be a visual fighter anyway and it didn't carry a gun. The Navy wanted an interceptor with a big radar and long-range BVR missiles. That's what the F-14 eventually became. The Air Force used the F-111 as a low-level striker, a role for which the F-111 eventually proved well-suited for.

    17. Re:They never learn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The F16 is the (Fighting) Falcon
      The F15 is the Eagle

    18. Re:They never learn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The F15 is the Eagle, the F16 is the Falcon.

    19. Re:They never learn. by 18_Rabbit · · Score: 1

      F-105: thunderchief F-111: Aardvark/Raven (BTW: turned out to be a pretty decent attack plane/anti-radar "Wild Weasel" F-15 Eagle F-18 Hornet Story pretty much correct though.

    20. Re:They never learn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow it is a little sad when you try to correct someone and end up with incorrect info. For the record the F15 is the Eagle, the F16 is the Falcon, and the F18 is the Hornet.

    21. Re:They never learn. by fiannaFailMan · · Score: 1

      F111 Thunder Chief

      Do you mean the F105 Thunder Chief? The F111 was a bomber.

      (Pssst! Reagan used F111s to bomb Libya!)

      --
      Drill baby drill - on Mars
    22. Re:They never learn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That would be *F15* Eagle

    23. Re:They never learn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Good story, but the F-111 is the Aardvark. The Air force flies the F-15 Eagle, and the F-105 is the Thunderchief .

    24. Re:They never learn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      F111 Thunder Chief

      The F-111 is the Aardvark, which is the one you're talking about. The F-105 is the Thunderchief.

      was a disaster even before it reached the drawing boards

      Nonetheless, it ended up being a spectacularly successful strike aircraft. The last of them were decommissioned last year, 44 years after they entered service.

      Navy got its way and got F-14 Tomcat and Air Force got its way and got F18 Eagle.

      You mean the F-15 Eagle.

    25. Re:They never learn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The F111 Thunder Chief was a disaster even before it reached the drawing boards

      Almost implies it was never made - the F105 Thunderchief actually did see action in Vietnam, and the F111 was only taken out of service as recently as 95-96.

    26. Re:They never learn. by Jonner · · Score: 1

      There are kernels of truth you that rant, but you seem very confused about the details of the aircraft. First, you're confusing the Republic F-105 Thunderchief, a figher bomber which entered service in 1958 with the General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark, which entered service in 1967.

      Second, though the F-111 did have great development difficulty and a planned Navy interceptor version never materialized, it was a successful design overall. The F-111 was only suitable for ground attack roles despite its "F" designation, which seems to have been a product of the messy politics around its development. However, both the F-105 and F-111 were operated successfully by the USAF in ground attack missions, albeit with mixed reputations.

      The Navy didn't get anything out of the F-111 project, but their following Grumman F-14 Tomcat did benefit from reusing parts of the F-111 program.

      Third, you're confusing the USAF air superiority fighter McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle and the USN/USMC McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet.

      The F-15 was developed later than the F-111 and was never considered an alternative to it. Rather, the F-15 was developed to replace the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II. Incidently, the F-4 was a successful fighter used by the USAF, USN, and USMC so the idea that one basic design can satisfy all services has some historical basis.

    27. Re:They never learn. by Jonner · · Score: 1

      Looking these planes up in Wikipedia isn't that hard. Try getting your story straight before correcting someone else with equally bad information.

      First, the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle has been a very successful program which the Air Force certainly wanted. It will remain the USAF's most important air superiority fighter for many years since the F-22s intended to replace it turned out to be too expensive to be built in significant numbers.

      Second, the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is also a very successful fighter in service with numerous air forces in addition to the USAF. Because it's less expensive than the F-15, it could be manufactured in much greater numbers. The program which produced the F-16 met great resistance early on from F-15 proponents, who saw it as a threat to their program. However, a "high/low mix" doctrine would be developed and eventually allowed both programs to coexist peacefully. That same doctrine is partly what led to both the F-22 and F-35 programs, the F-22 being the "high" fighter and F-35 being the "low" one. Since the extremely high cost of the F-22 means that only 187 total are planned, the USAF will need a capable "low" fighter to replace its F-16s and probably some F-15s.

    28. Re:They never learn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ummm F-15 Eagle...

    29. Re:They never learn. by afidel · · Score: 1

      The F111 flew over 4,000 sorties with 6 combat losses over Vietnam, the best record of any aircraft other than the venerable B52.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
  16. The big problem was VTOL by Animats · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Building vertical takeoff into the thing was the big mistake. Historically, VTOL aircraft have not been very successful, despite many attempts. However, the USMC has the Harrier, almost the only VTOL aircraft that works. So VTOL capability was specified for the F-35. This complicated the design enormously. (Look at the video, with all those hatches opening and huge nozzles deploying). I admire Lockheed-Martin for making that work at all. That's where the money went.

    The best fighters have been clean, simple beasts, like the F-16. Trying to combine fighter, bomber, stealth, and VTOL guarantees an expensive aircraft. Usually something important is lost, like range, bomb load, or turn radius. Or, most importantly, number of aircraft. In an air war, the side that runs out of fighters first loses.

    1. Re:The big problem was VTOL by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 2

      Yup, the plumber wants a monkey wrench. The sys-admin wants a screw driver. The surgeon wants a scalpel. So the hospital management orders three swiss army knives. Same old story.

      --
      sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    2. Re:The big problem was VTOL by spopepro · · Score: 1

      One thing complicating this is BRAC. There are F-16 wings that are maneuvering to try to get F-15s right now, even though the 15 is older and more difficult to maintain. What the 15 gives a wing is more flexibility. No one wants to be "air superiority and patrol" anymore since there isn't much need for that these days. And since 16s are limited in ground support capabilities, some people see the 15 as the only way to stay in business. Note that this isn't as much of a concern for the regular air force, who will mostly just shuffle people around, but has a massive effect on the air national guard.

      So having a single jet that can do it all (ground attack, air attack, stealth, vtol, carrier, you name it) means that you won't be considered obsolete.

    3. Re:The big problem was VTOL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, the Brits were totally broken hearted after they lost all those Harriers over the Falklands (10 total, 5 to mishaps, 5 to ground fire, and none to other aircraft). Also so disappointed that the VTOL Harrier let them convert a container freighter into an aircraft carrier on extremely short notice. LOL

      Your first point I agree with: they should have kept VTOL out of the F-35 and gotten the Marines their own aircraft to replace the AV-8B Harrier; they'd probably have it already. But the Marines had very real problems with the F/A-18 being their only fighter, which is why they shared the work with the AV-8. The biggest problem? Bases, which factor into response time. We send the Marines in where there is no infrastructure to support us; if there were infrastructure, we'd just send the Army and Air Force instead.

      Just ditching VTOL wholesale because the American Harrier didn't get as many air-to-air kills as the F-16, which was sold in far larger amounts to many countries, isn't a fair comparison.

      Stealth only matters when there's radar, which is usually just the first day by current doctrine. After that, if you don't care about response time, you may as well call in B-52's; they're more efficient bomb trucks than anything else we have. So the Marines probably didn't need the stealth features. At least, they'll use VTOL a lot more than stealth.

    4. Re:The big problem was VTOL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In an air war, the side that runs out of fighters first loses.

      Since when has the USA had an air war? Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Iraq 1, Panama, Afghanistan, Iraq 2, Libya: All countries with a small air-force. The USA has faced only Germany/Japan and China (via North Korea) in an air war. The cost of WW2 was enormous. And the Chinese, with greater numbers, forced the USA into a cease-fire when its "kill, crush, 'n' destroy" strategy didn't work.

    5. Re:The big problem was VTOL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The F-4 Phantom was a navy aircraft that was so good it was eventually bought by the Air Force. What seems to work is to design the most complex, demanding version first, then go for the simpler, less demanding types later. Trying to go the other way around doesn't seem to work too well. Having said that, I think the F-35 is a case of one customer too many.

    6. Re:The big problem was VTOL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      what the fuck are you talking about. The F-16 is a multi-role aircraft. You may be thinking of the F-15, which is the expensive air superiority fighter. Or the F-22.

    7. Re:The big problem was VTOL by treeves · · Score: 1

      ...and when's the last time we had an "air war" (excluding unilateral bombing campaigns)?

      --
      ...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
  17. Has there ever been a plane on time on budget? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Has there ever been a plane on time on budget? I haven't ever heard of one. Have there been any reports of such a thing? If not, why highlight the expected?

    1. Re:Has there ever been a plane on time on budget? by 0123456 · · Score: 1

      Has there ever been a plane on time on budget? I haven't ever heard of one.

      I'm pretty sure some aircraft were developed during WWII in less time than developing the paperwork on a modern fighter. Of course that was in wartime when the difference between having it flying and not having it flying could be catastrophic.

      And, to be fair, a WWII fighter was a heck of a lot simpler.

    2. Re:Has there ever been a plane on time on budget? by radtea · · Score: 1

      If not, why highlight the expected?

      The real question is: why highlight the expected only after the fact?

      Since when programs like this hit massive over-runs we are always reminded that programs like this always hit massive over-runs, why aren't those entirely predictable over-runs built in to the original budget? It is well-known how to do this, and since these over-runs--we are repeatedly told--are 100% sure predictable things on every single project of this type--it is just utter incompetence on the part of everyone involved that they are not built in from the start.

      --
      Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
  18. Marine infantry says that ... by perpenso · · Score: 2

    And who says the Marines need a fast jet in combat?

    Marine infantry says that. Perhaps they have a better perspective than Mr. McPeak has from his desk in Oregon.

    1. Re:Marine infantry says that ... by Rich0 · · Score: 1

      I need a new Porche. Trust me, I'm in a much better place to see it in my driveway than you are...

    2. Re:Marine infantry says that ... by jazman_777 · · Score: 1

      The Marines are part of the US Navy. Can't they call in F/A 18s off a carrier?

      --
      Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
    3. Re:Marine infantry says that ... by perpenso · · Score: 1

      Marine infantry says that. Perhaps they have a better perspective than Mr. McPeak has from his desk in Oregon.

      I need a new Porche. Trust me, I'm in a much better place to see it in my driveway than you are...

      Bad analogy. The Marine infantry who are so fond of the Harrier do not get to fly them.

    4. Re:Marine infantry says that ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They may well need appropriate air support. Surely that's the point of having an air force, though? Why does it have to be specifically marines supporting marines?

    5. Re:Marine infantry says that ... by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 1

      Marine infantry says that. Perhaps they have a better perspective than Mr. McPeak has from his desk in Oregon.

      "Mr. McPeak" was the AF Chief of Staff. I think he knows a little bit about aircraft.

    6. Re:Marine infantry says that ... by perpenso · · Score: 1

      The Marines are part of the US Navy. Can't they call in F/A 18s off a carrier?

      The carriers may actually be Amphibious Assault Ships, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphibious_assault_ship, that only launch VTOL harriers and helicopters. These ships are a very specialized all-in-one package that can deliver and support Marines. They Navy is more inclined to send them closer to shore than the full sized carriers.

      Note that history shows that the Navy is not always willing to put full sized carriers in the vicinity of the Marines. During WW2's Guadalcanal campaign the US carriers were pulled back after the Marines were landed and the naval battles around the island were often old fashioned gun fights between surface ships; battleships, cruisers and destroyers. One area off of Guadalcanal is named iron bottom sound due to all the ships that were sunk during the campaign. Its arguable that the Navy did the right thing removing the big carriers from that environment.

    7. Re:Marine infantry says that ... by perpenso · · Score: 1

      Marine infantry says that. Perhaps they have a better perspective than Mr. McPeak has from his desk in Oregon.

      "Mr. McPeak" was the AF Chief of Staff. I think he knows a little bit about aircraft.

      However he would know little of the needs of Marine infantry. That's why Marines have their own pilots, pilots that *must* begin their careers are infantry platoon commanders.

    8. Re:Marine infantry says that ... by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      Budgets, power, and ego. We're paying for little boys to play with their big toys. Somebody has to reign in the jarheads and it's not going to be the jarheads themselves.

      The Marines are the landing soldiers of the Navy. The Navy has aircraft on carriers and we also have an Air Force. The Marines shouldn't have their own aircraft or pilots - that's mission creep.

      Now, perhaps the Navy needs a VTOL model for its Marine Corps support operations. But that's not the Marines having their own air support.

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    9. Re:Marine infantry says that ... by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      they could. but they would lose their budget.

      having f15's, f18's and apaches.. it seems just matter of organizing them to work together.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    10. Re:Marine infantry says that ... by perpenso · · Score: 1

      they could. but they would lose their budget.

      having f15's, f18's and apaches.. it seems just matter of organizing them to work together.

      The Air Force (leadership, not necessarily individual pilots) is not all that interested in close air support. As evidenced by their attempt to get rid of the A-10. The Navy is not always interested in putting a carrier in the vicinity of Marines. As evidenced by the Guadalcanal campaign. The Army is OK with this, it justifies their helicopters. The Marines have learned that their most reliably air support comes from their fellow Marines. This is partly due to an emphasis in training, AF and Navy pilots have other priorities, air superiority, fleet defense, etc. It is also due to background, Marine pilots *must* start their careers by becoming infantry platoon commanders first. They have a better understanding of what they are seeing on the ground and hearing from those on the ground.

      Regarding better organization, that is the entire point of the amphibious assault ships. A single ship that is a complete package containing everything that a Marine ground force needs. Transport (ground and air), logistics, medical and air support.

    11. Re:Marine infantry says that ... by perpenso · · Score: 1

      You are mistaken. The Air Force and Navy are not as willing nor as capable to provide the close air support role. To avoid a redundant post see http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2513426&cid=37977968

    12. Re:Marine infantry says that ... by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      The Air Force and Navy are not as willing nor as capable to provide the close air support role.

      No argument there or with your other post - but they ought to be able to fulfill this role. We're spending way too much, and duplication is a good place to go for efficiency.

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    13. Re:Marine infantry says that ... by perpenso · · Score: 1

      They may well need appropriate air support. Surely that's the point of having an air force, though? Why does it have to be specifically marines supporting marines?

      Very different skill sets and equipment are needed for close air support compared and air superiority. The Air Force views air superiority as their primary role, close air support is secondary. The Marines have a very different perspective. To avoid redundant posts see: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2513426&cid=37977968

    14. Re:Marine infantry says that ... by perpenso · · Score: 1

      The Air Force and Navy are not as willing nor as capable to provide the close air support role.

      No argument there or with your other post - but they ought to be able to fulfill this role. We're spending way too much, and duplication is a good place to go for efficiency.

      Another way to reduce duplication may be to not force close air support upon the air force.

    15. Re:Marine infantry says that ... by NetNinja · · Score: 1

      Marines always have an squadron or 2 of F-18's on board the Navy Carrier. Marines fly them also. Part of our Air wing Component.

    16. Re:Marine infantry says that ... by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      Another way to reduce duplication may be to not force close air support upon the air force.

      Would you argue that between maintaining two air fleets there aren't commonalities? (staff, maintenance, procurement, facilities, r&d, etc.?)

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    17. Re:Marine infantry says that ... by perpenso · · Score: 1

      Another way to reduce duplication may be to not force close air support upon the air force.

      Would you argue that between maintaining two air fleets there aren't commonalities? (staff, maintenance, procurement, facilities, r&d, etc.?)

      How much maintenance commonality is there between an AF squadron that operates F-15s and another AF squadron that operates A-10s?

      I believe Marine procurement is done by the Navy. Marine squadrons are somewhat interchangeable with Navy squadrons (Marine squadrons are often deployed on carriers).

      A little tangent. The F-35 is supposed to make some of the maintenance and procurement stuff less of an issue given the high degree of commonality. A friend's father was an aviation mechanic in the Marines during VietNam. He spent some time at DaNang, an airfield shared by the AF and Marines. He said having a common airframe, F-4 Phantom II, with the AF was very convenient. They often "stole" parts from the AF when they ran out. What is the staff overhead when an air unit of one service has to coordinate with a ground unit of a different service? What operational inefficiencies are introduced due to this inter service coordination? My understanding is that a Marine division is somewhat permanently paired with a Marine air wing, and that battalions may be paired with squadrons. This creates are really tight and efficient force. Does this efficiency save lives?

      I don't necessarily have answer to these questions. I'm just suggesting that the topic of efficiency can get quite complicated, and that there are both financial and human aspects. One things I do know is that Marine infantry is of the opinion that they have been better served by their own aviation units, that over reliance on other services has hurt them at times.

      Now if the AF was forced to give more attention to close air support, would they pair AF wings/squadrons with Marine divisions/battalions? Integrate command and train at the same tempo and build a strong air ground team? If so have we lost some of that efficiency of having all "jets" under the AF, sort of replicated the current system? Well replicated with the exception of carrier operation. Marine FA-18s providing close air support may be operating from a carrier rather than from ground. The AF can't fulfill that requirement.

    18. Re:Marine infantry says that ... by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      Personally I don't think it's useful to have a separate Air Force. The Constitution doesn't authorize an Air Force (or a standing Army for that matter...). I realize there were no airplanes in 1789, but reading the Navy's mission as 'boats' instead of 'the permanent, expensive, high-tech war assets' is missing the conceptual point.

      The Army is pretty clearly the ground infantry. Large numbers of lightly-trained soldiers to send into close combat. That's different than the Marines, as I don't think a Navy with only sailors makes any sense. The Marines are better trained and intended to be a long-term force. The Army is intended to be trained up in 6 weeks and sent off to War, while their replacements are being trained.

      I realize the Air Force came up through the Army, but a mistake was made in 1947 by creating a new branch, rather than telling the Navy that they had craft in the water and air (and eventually space), now that the War was over.

      Given that, do you think if the Navy had the air assets that they could do a proper job of supporting the Marine Corps mission?

      --
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    19. Re:Marine infantry says that ... by perpenso · · Score: 1

      The Navy's air assets for supporting Marine infantry are to a large degree Marine aviators. The US Naval Academy and Naval ROTC produces both Sailors and Marines. The Navy's flight schools produce both Navy and Marine pilots, both are carrier qualified Naval Aviators. "Naval" is used in this title to expressly include Marines. The Navy flight demonstration team, the Blue Angers, often includes Marine pilots. Marine aircraft as nearly exclusively Navy aircraft with a different paint job. Procured by the Navy, logistics partly provided by the Navy. Navy aircraft carriers do not go to sea exclusively with Navy squadrons, a Marine squadron may deploy along side Navy squadrons.

      The only real difference between Navy and Marine aviation is that on the Marine side the personnel are Marines. What does that mean? It means that the pilot is different because he had to become an infantry platoon commander before he could go to flight school, the mechanic is different because he had to become an infantry rifleman before he could go to avionics school, etc. Not some abbreviated familiarization course, the exact same schools, training and requirements as the guys walking around with the muddy boots. You literally have to prove yourself an infantryman before you can move on to aviation, or any other job in the Marines.

    20. Re:Marine infantry says that ... by perpenso · · Score: 1

      Sorry, I got bit by auto correct/complete. "Blue Angels". Please forgive the other now obvious typos as well. :-)

  19. Against AK47s and IEDs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Talk about a sledgehammer to crack a walnut.

    However, it is a very efficient way to loot taxpayer funds. The US can't afford to have a cost-overrun gap!

  20. i love the F22 :( by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i'm glad we cancelled the F22 when it was in production and went with the F35 which is in design. that was a close call, we might have actually had a modernized air force. it's inconceivable that the F22 might have been adapted later to the additional missions the F35 can do. with the best fighter ever created in mothballs, we'll never be a threat to the world. which is good, because america is evil and obama is making sure we're stopped. thank you obama! 4 more years!

    actually, i'm quite aware that the F22 was cancelled because it was *too* awesome. so awesome we didn't want to export it. the F35 though? sure no problem, because it sucks.

  21. canada by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    then Harper decided it's the best choice! no matther the price!

  22. Re:Ah, makes perfect sense... by jazman_777 · · Score: 1

    The F-35 shouldn't be the JSF "Joint Strike Fighter", but the DNF: "Duke Nukem Fighter"

    --
    Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
  23. One word: TFX by thepainguy · · Score: 1

    OK, two words (since the program doesn't seem to be written about much): F-111.

    That was the same kind of concept -- one plane that could play multiple roles -- but it didn't work out in the end since so many requirements went against each other. You'd think they'd learn from history, but I guess the concept is just too appealing.

    1. Re:One word: TFX by rynoski · · Score: 1

      An F111 would suit Australian requirements. We kept them longer than anywhere else in the world. Would still use them now if we could.

      It was known as the pig, but it was more suitable than the F35 will ever be. (or F22, or FA18, or super hornet, or... you get the picture)

      --
      There are two types of people in the world: 1) those that can extrapolate from incomplete data.
  24. Is it really needed? by kikito · · Score: 1

    The Harrier exists for VTOL. The F-16 is a very capable machine.

    What can be more affordable than using what you already have?

    1. Re:Is it really needed? by atrain728 · · Score: 1

      I'm sure we can find some P-51 air frames that are serviceable, as long as we're at it!

    2. Re:Is it really needed? by kikito · · Score: 1

      The P-51 doesn't stand a chance these days. The ones I mentioned do.

    3. Re:Is it really needed? by atrain728 · · Score: 1

      You don't develop for 'these days.' You develop for the future.

    4. Re:Is it really needed? by kikito · · Score: 2

      The future is not borrowing us any more budget.

  25. Having Once Worked at Lockheed Martin... by geoffrobinson · · Score: 1

    Lockheed Martin doesn't like to have cost and schedule overruns. While I didn't work on this project directly (I knew people who did), my educated guess would be to the causes:

    1) the government's requirements are either unrealistic or changing
    2) doing large technical projects is legitimately hard to do on time, on budget, and meeting requirements.

    This isn't just true of government and defense projects. This is true of almost all technical projects. While in grad school, I took a software project management class. The teacher stressed that out of all technical projects only 1/6th can be considered successful (on-time, on-budget, meets requirements).

    So let's not be hypocritical and attributing cost overruns simply to lobbying.

    As to the costs, the government is very bureaucratic. (stating the obvious) Also, the defense industry doesn't outsource labor. Imagine a place where engineering can work for good pay at the age of 55.

    --
    Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
    1. Re:Having Once Worked at Lockheed Martin... by X.25 · · Score: 1

      This isn't just true of government and defense projects. This is true of almost all technical projects. While in grad school, I took a software project management class. The teacher stressed that out of all technical projects only 1/6th can be considered successful (on-time, on-budget, meets requirements).

      So let's not be hypocritical and attributing cost overruns simply to lobbying.

      Oh, please keep comparing your grad school hearsay with a fighter plane project.

      It's the same, your teacher knew everything about it.

    2. Re:Having Once Worked at Lockheed Martin... by geoffrobinson · · Score: 1

      Research studies are hearsay? It's been about 9 years so I don't even remotely have the reference handy.

      Are you trying to say that IT projects, which have low success rates given that criteria, would be less successful generally than building an advanced fighter jet?

      --
      Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
  26. VTOL used repeatedly in combat for decades by perpenso · · Score: 1

    A lot of design compromises were made especially to give the Marine Corps the STOVL capability which, by the way, they’ve never used in combat

    You were misinformed. VTOL Harriers have been used in combat.

    Amphibious assault ships are a highly specialized self-contained "package" that contains everything that Marines need to deliver and support a ground force. Part of that force includes "fast movers" to provide close air support on a very rapid basis. Note that the US Marines and the British Royal Navy employ the same aircraft and the British have similarly sized carriers specialized for these type of aircraft. The concept was proven in the Falklands, Yugoslavia, the Gulf Wars 1 and 2, Afghanistan and in the recent support of revolutionaries in Libya. One of many examples:

    "On 20 March 2011, USMC AV-8Bs were launched from USS Kearsarge in support of Operation Odyssey Dawn, enforcing the UN no-fly zone over Libya. They carried out air strikes on Sirte on 5 April 2011. Multiple AV-8Bs were involved in the defense of a downed F-15E pilot, attacking approaching Libyans prior to the pilot's extraction by MV-22 Osprey." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AV-8B_Harrier_II#United_States_Marine_Corps

    1. Re:VTOL used repeatedly in combat for decades by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As someone who worked on the design for the Harrier (inc the USMC version) Autopilots, I am pretty proud that the concept of VSTOL (note not VTOL) has been proven in combat.
      If you look at the history of the Harrier, you will see that proving its usefulness to the top brass was a long and difficult road.

      It worked in the Falklands even against the (on paper superior) Mirage.

    2. Re:VTOL used repeatedly in combat for decades by X.25 · · Score: 1

      You were misinformed. VTOL Harriers have been used in combat.

      You can't read. He was referring to STOVL capability being used in combat. Meaning - were Harriers hovering while protecting downed pilot? (let me help you - the answer is 'no').

    3. Re:VTOL used repeatedly in combat for decades by perpenso · · Score: 2

      You were misinformed. VTOL Harriers have been used in combat.

      You can't read. He was referring to STOVL capability being used in combat. Meaning - were Harriers hovering while protecting downed pilot? (let me help you - the answer is 'no').

      Guess again. The "TO" and "L" in those acronyms stand for take off and landing. I believe they are both important phases of a combat mission. The take off part is of particular importance. the vertical takeoff allows operations from improvised ground locations and ships far smaller and far closer to a target than full sized carriers. During the Falklands war the British even launched Harriers from modified merchant container ships. Taking off near the target saves time, saving time saves lives. I believe the Marines use the term "aggressive speed" with respect to using Harriers deployed on the ground with an expeditionary force.

      VTOL also affects combat missions in that the mission can occur at all. The Harrier is able to fly in weather conditions that ground convention carrier based aircraft.

      I don't see an "H" for hovering. My understanding is that the Harrier can only hover for a very brief period of time, and it pretty much needs that for TO and L. I think you are confusing movies like "True Lies" with reality. In reality I think Harrier pilots have used their vectored thrust nuzzles while in forward flight to perform some unexpected maneuvers.

  27. They should have trained 3 more soldiers. by CanadianRealist · · Score: 1

    - USG invests hunderds of thousands or millions of dollars in training for 1334 soldiers and pays them a civil service salary

    It would have been so much better if they had trained just 3 more soldiers.

    1. Re:They should have trained 3 more soldiers. by chebucto · · Score: 1

      I think I'm dyslexic. That, or I'm more 1334 than 1337.

      Also, it's Bremer, not Bremner.

      --
      The English word fart is one of the oldest words in the English vocabulary.
  28. "Ten years and $66 billion later"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Have they learned nothing from Duke Nukem Forever?

  29. Cmon.. by SuperCharlie · · Score: 1

    This has little to do with the aircraft and everything to do with how much can be made off it. Its like everything the govt touches, they will charge what the govt will pay until the payments stop and we are lucky if there is any functionality at all without massive over-runs and over-budgets. It would be more useful to hold a company to its bid and either get delivery of the product (at specs) or reimbursement of the payments. But as we all know.. thats not how the military complex works.

  30. Isn't that the point of the aircraft? by kimvette · · Score: 1

    Still, Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last month the U.S. may not be able to afford three variants, for the Air Force, Navy aircraft carriers, and the Marine Corps.

    Um, wasn't the whole point of cancelling F-22 orders in favor of the F-35? I.e., going with the cheaper F-35 (with reduced capabilities) so that the same basic airframe could be tailored to a specific variant for specific branch requirements, The F-35 was a budget-cutting decision, because it trades off performance as an interceptor or bomber to be a jack of all trades. Killing the F-22 in favor of the more capable F-35 was strategically a boneheaded move, and killing both off is the epitome of stupidity.

    Want to balance the budget? It's more simple than the Obama administration (and Congress) are making it: let's stop being the world's policeman, and only get involved if treaties with allies requires us to by law. Reverse the war powers act and enforce the Constitution, giving sole responsibility of the declaration of war (or equivalent) to Congress alone, which is the way it is supposed to be in the first place. Don't cut off investment in defense; cut off wasting money on fighting everyone else's battles. Stop giving hundreds of billions of dollars (which we have to borrow) in foreign aid to other nations. Stop bailing out irresponsible banks, carmakers, "green" power manufacturers, and so on.

    Fix welfare; and by "fix" I mean "nuke from orbit" and start over from scratch. Welfare is hopelessly broken, because it is no longer the temporary assistance program it was intended to be but has become a system which ensures people remain a slave to it. I know multiple people who are struggling financially and are receiving assistance, want to get off it but because their industries are dead, or are unable to perform their old jobs, have sought alternate work, but taking a lower-paying job as a temporary stepping stone results in losing all assistance, including food stamps, which leaves them in a worse predicament than they started out in. How would I fix it? I would make it temporary, and I would make it kick in before people lose everything and reach the point where they become entrapped by the system.

    Fix illegal invasion of our borders by kicking illegal aliens out, starting with Obama's relatives: Meanwhile, illegal aliens who invade our borders openly flaunt paid-for-by-us housing, tuition, food, clothing, health care, and even cars in some cases, as they work under the table and not pay so much as a dime into the system).

    Fix health care: by "fix" I mean nuke RomneyCare (and its demon spawn ObamaCare) from orbit, and focus on the following: regulate the pharmaceutical companies (as in pricing) for any companies which receive any form of subsidy or grant, I would introduce tort reform, and also heavily regulate the insurance companies, to make sure they cover what they say they will cover, provide preventive care instead of engaging in HMO-like "do nothing until it's too late" practices. Tort reform would significantly lower malpractice insurance, and regulating the pharmaceutical companies (and yanking ALL federal and state funding for pharmaceutical companies in violation of regulations AND slapping HEAVY fines upon them) that violate pricing policies. I'm all for charging a profitable fee for drugs, but not when the R&D and even advertising for them is heavily subsidized, and you charge >10x more for the drug domestically than you do overseas.

    Taxes: eliminate the tax system as it currently exists; property taxes have pretty much eliminated private ownership of property, sales and excise and inventory taxes place an undue burden on businesses and increase prices for consumers, and death/inheritance taxes are unethical at best because they are taxing money which has already been taxed (which is what excise taxes, inventory taxes, sales taxes, fuel taxes, and so forth do as well). I'd implement a flat tax

    --
    The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
    1. Re:Isn't that the point of the aircraft? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Wow, you have been impressively mislead on almost every front. It's so far out there, it's not even wrong.

    2. Re:Isn't that the point of the aircraft? by sphealey · · Score: 1

      > Fix welfare; and by "fix" I mean "nuke from orbit" and start over from scratch. Welfare is hopelessly
      > broken, because it is no longer the temporary assistance program it was intended to be but has
      > become a system which ensures people remain a slave to it.

      Somewhat curious as to how the changes to what you term "welfare" which were put in place by the Clinton Administration and Congress specifically to address the concerns you note have been undone? Because I have seen no sign of such undoing either in Congress or the state governments; just the opposite if anything.

      > I know multiple people who are struggling financially and are receiving assistance, want to get off
      > it but because their industries are dead, or are unable to perform their old jobs, have sought
      > alternate work, but taking a lower-paying job as a temporary stepping stone results in losing all
      > assistance, including food stamps, which leaves them in a worse predicament than they started out in.

      That's an entirely different problem from that of "welfare" you started out with, and one which is far less tractable (particularly given the social constraints imposed on the US by its 1%).

      sPh

  31. Re:Ah, makes perfect sense... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Translation: Back then nobody cared how much money we wasted

  32. Re:Ah, makes perfect sense... by Machtyn · · Score: 1

    That was what I found curious: Why do we need $500 toilet seats and wrenches? Why do we need to verify that the stapler used to put reports together is safe from an EMP explosion?

  33. 66 billion in science dollars. by JoshuaZ · · Score: 2

    That's about 10 copies of the James Webb Telescope assuming absolutely worst case cost estimates. This is about fifteen times the cost that the Terrestrial Planet Finder would have been assuming it had been approved and then run over budget by a lot. It is about four times the cost of ITER, the next generation fusion reactor being built by an international consortium. It is about 1.5 human trips to Mars. It is about four times the maximal cost of the Superconducting Super Collider if it has been approved.Estimating the cost of the International Space Station is tough but this is clearly more than twice that cost. Most of these projects has been on the chopping block at one time. Two of these projects got axed and the Mars one never really got off the ground. This says something about our priorities and it isn't good.

    1. Re:66 billion in science dollars. by Baloroth · · Score: 1, Insightful

      That's about 10 copies of the James Webb Telescope assuming absolutely worst case cost estimates. This is about fifteen times the cost that the Terrestrial Planet Finder would have been assuming it had been approved and then run over budget by a lot. It is about four times the cost of ITER, the next generation fusion reactor being built by an international consortium. It is about 1.5 human trips to Mars. It is about four times the maximal cost of the Superconducting Super Collider if it has been approved.Estimating the cost of the International Space Station is tough but this is clearly more than twice that cost. Most of these projects has been on the chopping block at one time. Two of these projects got axed and the Mars one never really got off the ground. This says something about our priorities and it isn't good.

      I mostly agree with you, but I should point out: none of those things help you if you are dead. And while there may not currently be any major enemies to fight, I wouldn't bet on that not changing.

      --
      "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
  34. Selling these to poor India by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    These are the same planes that the US is trying to sell to India
    http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/11/03/idINIndia-60286320111103

    1. Re:Selling these to poor India by ThatsMyNick · · Score: 1

      It was just a token gesture. India had just selected the European fighters over the American F-16s and F-18s, and US wanted to break the ice, by offering India their top class (a bit stripped down) fighter, knowing that India would refuse due to costs.

    2. Re:Selling these to poor India by ThatsMyNick · · Score: 1

      Besides Pakistan had just "purchased" (in quotes, because it was purchased using US grants) F16s and F18s, and India was unhappy with sale and it was a further insult that India had been offered the same fighters (Ever remember people talking about offering weapons to both sides of the war; this was just the case)

  35. NASA: compare by Darth+Snowshoe · · Score: 1

    It seems like every day on /. we get one or a couple of articles whose comment threads trend heavily towards NASA-bashing. I'd love for NASA programs to be compared apples-for-apples against DoD programs.

    1. Re:NASA: compare by gorzek · · Score: 1

      Every analysis I've seen in the past shows that we get an incredible bang for the buck from NASA, in terms of the research they accomplish vs. their funding. But it's not worth anything because it is, by and large, pure research--which has no value to profit-obsessed corporate America.

    2. Re:NASA: compare by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      we get an incredible bang for the buck from NASA

      Hang on, I thought NASA's job was to not go bang?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    3. Re:NASA: compare by IHateEverybody · · Score: 1

      we get an incredible bang for the buck from NASA

      Hang on, I thought NASA's job was to not go bang?

      Exactly. That's why NASA gets so much less money than the military whose job it is to go bang, bang, bang all day and all night....

      --
      Does this .sig make my butt look big?
    4. Re:NASA: compare by Teancum · · Score: 1

      Every analysis I've seen in the past shows that we get an incredible bang for the buck from NASA, in terms of the research they accomplish vs. their funding. But it's not worth anything because it is, by and large, pure research--which has no value to profit-obsessed corporate America.

      If you really want to get into a NASA worshiping mode, you need to be very careful here. Yes, NASA can do some amazing things on a shoe string budget, and some of the projects and missions to other planets have panned out spectacularly well, as has other NASA basic research. The aviation research in particular (the first "A" in NASA that is often ignored) is not just very efficient but it also has tremendous value to "corporate America" so far as it has improved commercial aviation in ways that have impacted their bottom line and in general made travel in the skies in any form much safer. Certainly what NASA is doing to improve aircraft safety beats out everything combined by the Transportation Security Administration, especially lives saved by the tax dollars spent.

      This said, there are spend thrifty programs at NASA, and at the moment the worst of those happen to be in the manned spaceflight arm of NASA. You certainly can't justify the expenditures toward Constellation or the SLS program, or frankly much of any of the new vehicle development efforts since the Space Shuttle was finally declared an "operational" system in the early 1980's. It has been one train wreck after another going through the concept grinding mill, and the track record that NASA has for actually getting a vehicle built is so miserable that to me it is a wonder they even still exist at all. The SLS architecture in particularly is to build a vehicle that has no defined mission to perform once it is built because the destination for which it is being designed won't exist when it is completed. And that is just scratching the surface of what the problems are for that vehicle. The James Webb Telescope is another huge waste of resources in a horribly mismanaged project.

      Don't take this that I hate seeing tax dollars spent in space, as I think it has worked out real well in the past. But giving NASA a blank check doesn't help either and there are some real problems with that agency... mainly due to neglect by several administrations and an ambivalent congress that chooses to ignore the agency as well. There certainly are some major problems with American space policy, and white washing NASA to claim that the money spent there is necessarily going to be used effectively is not really true at the moment. Certainly you shouldn't claim that past performance is necessarily an indication of what is happening there now.

  36. were was we're by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    were = past plural of "is", as in "They were behind schedule"
    we're = contraction of "we are", as in "We're behind schedule."

    One of the primary functions of the apostrophe is to stand in for missing letters or sounds in contractions or in transcribing phonetically challenged dialects.

  37. Watch the "Pentagon Wars" mistakes repeated by beltsbear · · Score: 1

    Basically they wanted this thing to do way to much. The F35 should not have tried to combine absolutely everything that anyone asked for. The VTOL was the worst part, but just being both a bomber and a fighter was a mistake. I am surprised they did not try to add an 'unmanned' mode as well to make it a drone. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pentagon_Wars The movie is both funny an true, and shows that we do NOT learn from our mistakes.

  38. Re:Purge iTards from the gene pool by babywhiz · · Score: 1

    I believe I am totally confused about this comment string. Mission accomplished?!?

  39. VSTOL NOT frigging VTOL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Vertical/Short Take Off & Landing.

    From Day 1, the Harrier was limited in the weapons/fuel load it could lift vertically. That is why the R.Navy carriers like Ark Royal had ski jumps. This gave the short take off the extra lift it needed on a short flight deck to carry a full load of fuel and stores. The Plane was also designed to operate from forward airfields in mainland Europe. These would be typically highways. These airfields could be mobile. The Harrier could land vertically, pick up more fuel and weapons and then lify off after using the road as a runway. The vectored thrust would help the plane lift off quickly once it was moving. SHORT Take OFF.

    This is from someone who has worked on the Harrier Flight line.

  40. Never depend only on bombers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The A-10 was designed to get close to tanks and blow them up with a gun. It has to fly low and slow to accomplish the mission. Why do that when you can fly above an enemy's defenses and drop a bomb or fire a missile?

    Warfare doesn't work like that. Remember thesis-counterthesis-synthesis from ROTC training? Combined arms? If you have only one way to get the job done, the enemy counters that single strategy before they even declare war, and roll right past your Maginot line. You always, always, need more than one way to reach your objectives, and more than one way to get the job done when you get there.

    Good question, though! Not everybody has had military 101.

    1. Re:Never depend only on bombers by markbark · · Score: 1

      Nuke it from orbit.... it's the only way to be sure {grin}

  41. Financial Problems at Lockheed by mosb1000 · · Score: 1

    Actually, Lockheed is under quite a bit of financial pressure these days. And it's a situation that's not going to change anytime soon. Admittedly this is a result of the federal government's financial problems, not their disgraceful performance, but at least it's a start.

  42. F35 should be cancelled by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The F35 is overweight, over complex, under powered, and uncompetitive with even the generation of Russian technology (and possibly Chinese).
    Its airframe is actually not particularly stealthy, particularly when exposed to the new generation of radars. The AIM-120 is obsolete, and effectively ineffectual against even the last generation of Russian aircraft, which can out-turn, and out-run the obsolete US product. The US aircraft lack the high end IR detection scheme of the Russian planes, and as a result, must light up their radar, in effect no longer being stealth aircraft. The Russian aircraft will no doubt observe EMCOM, and use IRST instead. In effect the US aircraft will either loose its stealth capability and be shot down, or end up in close air combat, high and fast, with a Russian built aircraft, with superior manoeuvrability, and significantly better missile systems.
    The F-35 is out manoeuvred, out gunned, and surpassed in every way by even a current model of Sukhoi 27. How will such a product be able to be marketed? Political pressure to buy, one must assume.
    In terms of the basic layout, it is in fact based on the Russian Yakovlev Yak-141 program, a privilege for which Lockheed Martin paid the Russian design bureau several hundred million dollars. The basic layout of the VTOL version is almost identical to the Yak-141, and uses the Soviet designed swivelling jet pipe design.
    The price of designing an airframe for VTOL capability, even when not actually implemented in a particular derivative, results in a significant increase in RCS, and a significant increase in structural weight. These compromises are evident in all aspects of F35 performance. It shows.

  43. Drones? by Zadaz · · Score: 1

    And if we did for some reason go back to air combat, why would we do it with pilots in the planes? Take the need to keep a pilot alive out of the equation and everything gets much cheaper. And we can take the maneuverability close to aerodynamic and mechanical limits rather than the limits of the pilot.

    If they cost 1/10th (or 1/1000th) as much and don't have a highly trained (and expensive) pilot in them, how much to we care of they get shot down?

    1. Re:Drones? by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      I think a lot of the problem is that the Air Force Generals tend to be Fighter Jocks. They have a prejudice towards manned fighters.

      To this outsider, drones look great! They're cheaper, don't have the design compromises of needing to hold a pilot, and you can send them on extremely high risk missions without having to risk the life of a pilot. But what do I know? I've never flown a jet fighter in a combat situation.

    2. Re:Drones? by mabhatter654 · · Score: 1

      Most importantly you only need a few well paid libertatian nerds in bunkers to take care of indigenous problems... Or ones that are inconvenient and bad for business.

      The motivation is clear that in our asymmetrical conflicts the ability of pilots to follow orders and unload on farmers with only small arms is going to be a problem.

      Not to mention when the 1% needs to keep the crazies away!

  44. Everything Is Too Expensive by rally2xs · · Score: 0

    Until we do something to revitalize our industrial base and get people working and paying taxes from GOOD paying jobs and not burger flipping jobs, everything is going to be too expensive. The F-22, the F-35, etc. have been and are about to be canceled due to the realities of our economic situation.

    I believe that the answer is here: www.fairtax.org. Completely untaxing US industry I believe will supercharge our economy, and get us out of this bad economic situation virtually overnight. Read it. Understand it and you'll demand it.

  45. Re:Ah, makes perfect sense... by jopsen · · Score: 1

    No, were 5 years behind schedule because the governments response to that situation in the past has been "Oh. Well here's some more money. Let see if that helps."

    As oppose to here - oh, well too bad... Now we don't get any new fighter jets? (which implies that the current investment is lost).
    When contracts like this goes bad, it's loose -- loose situation... I mean what could they have done?

    Surely, it's possible that the project have been poorly managed or that major private commercial entities have lied about their cost estimates to get contracts (that's just capitalism, deal with it or revolutionize)...
    But the thing is that development of fighter jets is a risky investment, and assuming you want new fighter jets, you have to make such a risky investment.

    My country (Denmark) have also invested an awful lot of money (if measured per citizen) in this project. IMO it would have been better if we'd just bought some of the cheap gripen jets that Saab in Sweden is making... Obviously, they're not as cool as the F-35, but for the kind of wars we're participating in (typically UN sanctioned international conflicts where the Americans always does the hard stuff - thank by the way) they're probably fine.
    But when our politicians wants to have the newest high tech fighter jets, well, then there's a risk and we've got to accept that.
    What else can we do?

  46. unmanned stealth drone bomber is already here by ace37 · · Score: 1

    Look up the Northrop X-47B. It's a stealth UAV that carries 4500 lbs and takes off from an aircraft carrier. It can do in-flight refueling. We're already there, and in the public domain no less.

    Data: http://www.as.northropgrumman.com/products/nucasx47b/index.html
    Picture: http://www.as.northropgrumman.com/products/nucasx47b/assets/lgm_0016.jpg

  47. Re:Ah, makes perfect sense... by MrTester · · Score: 1

    In principle I agree. The problem is when the contractors KNOW this they can milk the system for more money.
    So we need to work with contracts that that bind both parties. Set an upper limit for what the government will pay, a minimum for what the government will receive and logical gates that lock down WHEN each party will walk away.

    Even then the system will be gamed, but at least there would be limits.

  48. Scrap it already by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Raise your hand if you understand that you cannot make a single product that is everything to everybody. The F-35 is the result of inexperienced Harvard MBAs run amok trying to apply idealized textbook one-size-fits-all solutions to real life problems where different customers have radically different missions.

  49. F-4 Phantom II - a joint service success by perpenso · · Score: 1

    Back in the 60s Robert McNamara pushed a "joint" fighter common to both Air Force and the Navy. Bean counter at heart, wanted to take advantages of economy of scale, synergy and the other buzzword bingo terms.

    The F-111 may have failed but the F-4 Phantom II succeeded. Used by the US Air Force, Navy and Marines as their front line fighter. Entered service in 1960, still in use today.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-4_Phantom_II

    1. Re:F-4 Phantom II - a joint service success by sphealey · · Score: 1

      > he F-111 may have failed

      It certainly failed against its original spec, but as a medium bomber it had no equal. The RAAF just retired their last batch and there is nothing in the arsenal (the non-Russian arsenal anyway) that comes even close to replacing them for Australia's sea control requirements.

      sPh

  50. Big government solution to big govt by bigtrike · · Score: 1

    I'm at a loss as to how illegal immigrants manage to avoid paying any property (through their landlord), gas, or sales taxes. It's a shame they work under the table, so we lose out on all the tax money that a legal resident making $10k a year would be paying. How much is that, again?

  51. Ronald Regan... by Greyfox · · Score: 1
    God damn it, I can't believe I'm about to say this... Ronald Regan actually did a pretty good job of taking the DOD to task, and forced them to get more bang for our tax buck. Ronald Reagan held them accountable, and they did shape up when he was running things.

    I think accountability more than anything else is key. If no one loses their job when billions of dollars are wasted, they're just going to keep doing that.

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

    1. Re:Ronald Regan... by DesScorp · · Score: 1

      God damn it, I can't believe I'm about to say this... Ronald Regan actually did a pretty good job of taking the DOD to task, and forced them to get more bang for our tax buck. Ronald Reagan held them accountable, and they did shape up when he was running things.

      I think accountability more than anything else is key. If no one loses their job when billions of dollars are wasted, they're just going to keep doing that.

      You're correct on that. Now, if you really want some heartburn, guess who it was that A) canceled the F-14D, B)cancelled the A-12, and attempted to C)cancel the V-22 Osprey?

      Dick Cheney.

      --
      Life is hard, and the world is cruel
  52. $400 Million Each is not Affordable by RABarnes · · Score: 1

    Give me a break.

  53. Kill it! by p51d007 · · Score: 1

    They tried this "one size fits all" approach back in the 60's with the f-4 phantom. Air Force, Marines, Navy all tried the Phantom. It just wasn't "good enough" for each branch. The navy has special needs that the air force & marines don't have, and need a purpose built craft. Does the air force need to replace the f-16? Probably...it first started coming around in the late 70's. Does the navy need to replace the f-18? Probably NOT. Do the marines need to replace the harrier? Yep, old/slow, but the one frame for everyone concept didn't work before. And since the definition of insanity is to try the same thing over and over expecting a different result, then you have to ask are they nuts?

  54. Re:Ah, makes perfect sense... by bryan1945 · · Score: 1

    Wasn't this question answered in some movie about how black ops get funded?

    --
    Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
  55. Wrong Direction by glorybe · · Score: 1

    My feeling now is that any military combat aircraft is obsolete if it carries a human pilot. Whether it is s trike force fighter bomber or a plane designed to attack other fighters or bombers human life support slows down and restricts the ability of the craft. Whether it is excessive fuel or less range caused by human life support systems or simply the ability to take very high G forces in a dog fight humans simply are not needed for combat. And if a plane is shot down we don't have a highly trained pilot lost nor his family to support for the next 80 years. Drones are working out just fine.

  56. Wasn't Lockheed Hacked? by Harkin · · Score: 1
  57. How things must have changed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I still remember my first day with Skunk Works, back in 1997 at the start of the X-35 JAST competition. My new boss told me then, "let me frame this whole thing for you: this program has one and only one goal - the USAF variant shall cost no more than a current generation F-16 in then year dollars; flying is optional"

    Guess they lost sight of the fact the USAF has approx 1200 F-16 airframes that are wearing out and need replacement, plus a few hundred USN/USMC F-18A/B/C/Ds.

  58. elcheapo by fonitrus · · Score: 1

    they should release the plans to the chinese and buy back the new chinese made planes at quarter the cost. :)

  59. Comsat killer? by justaguy516 · · Score: 0

    Wasn't this the program which caused Lockheed Martin to shut down comsat labs?

  60. Documentary... by Nogami_Saeko · · Score: 2

    If you haven't seen the "Battle of the X-Planes" documentary, you probably should. A lot of detail about the behind the scenes development of the aircraft that were competing head-to-head for the JSF contract.

    In the end Boeing's aircraft lost the battle, but it seems that their UAVs will probably win the war. The days of pilots in the cockpit may be much shorter than people previously thought...

    --
    "Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence." - Charles de Gaulle
  61. forget history by cratermoon · · Score: 1

    "The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program aimed to replace several aircraft from three major military services with a fifth-generation model capable of short-takeoff and vertical-landing while maintaining the capability of sustained supersonic flight - all while staying affordable"

    Doesn't anyone remember the F-111?

    1. Re:forget history by rynoski · · Score: 1

      Yeah, what a great plane that was, suited our needs perfectly. Unlike anything else on the market today.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Dynamics_F-111C

      --
      There are two types of people in the world: 1) those that can extrapolate from incomplete data.
  62. The good old days by MPAndonee · · Score: 1

    You know in the good old days Design to Prototype was about two years (do any search on any of the old good planes of yesteryear I grew-up with, for example the F-104, took ~2 years). This most often included the competition phase. Now, they throw everyone in the pot (the let's make everyone happy approach). And to top all they include FOREIGN companies that may or may not meet US standards of excellence (I am not necessarily referring to Japanese or German companies). Yeah, we definitely have the best Fifth generation fighter out there.....

    --
    Nothing to see here -- move along now...
  63. Re:Ah, makes perfect sense... by jgtg32a · · Score: 1

    Independence Day

  64. This is why we are broke... by netskink · · Score: 1

    We build complex jets which can destroy our opponent, then we send in expensive troops as bait for the remaining opponents, then we send in expensive engineers to rebuild our opponents cities and our own facilities, finally we send in expensive doctors to treat our opponents whom we have hurt. God bless the USA. We have become a country of backwards idiots.

  65. Remember, Design Data was stolen by gizmo_mathboy · · Score: 1

    A very good reason to drop the program is that it was hacked.

  66. Are you seriously making that comparison? by dbIII · · Score: 1

    There are a very large number of differences between the two situations. You can't hide behind a tree or behind rocks on a mountain if you don't have either, and as pointed out above the occupiers outnumbered the locals which makes things very tricky when there are only a limited number of habitable shelters on the islands and it's certain death outside of them.

  67. Re:Ah, makes perfect sense... by afidel · · Score: 1

    It wasn't a $500 toilet seat, it was a custom crafted fixture to enclose a new tank that a toilet seat attached to and the reason it was so expensive is that a new mold had to be built and they were only producing a run of a few hundred units. Likewise the $500 toolbox was a soundproofed unit designed for working outside the acoustically shielded portion of a line of billion dollar nuclear submarines with a handful of units produced.

    --
    There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
  68. north face footwear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You definitely can afford north face footwear limited at discount price. Andnorth face footwear also own the stylish design.

  69. Air Jordan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I was awe struck after I read the news that Air Jordan shoes was canceled in the NBA sports because it violated the rules defined. The subhead further intrigued me, Michael Jordan, which has been called the full range of Air Jordan, was fined $ 5000 each time he stood in a ragged game. Maybe that's what Jordan Shoes hit their highest altars of popularity all too suddenly. Probably, an explosion is not required advanced and stronger commercial than this All Jordan Shoes.

  70. Re:Ah, makes perfect sense... by bryan1945 · · Score: 1

    Thank you. That was driving me nuts.

    --
    Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.