U.S. Waived Laws To Keep F-35 On Track With China-made Parts

An anonymous reader sends this report from Reuters: "The Pentagon repeatedly waived laws banning Chinese-built components on U.S. weapons in order to keep the $392 billion Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter program on track in 2012 and 2013, even as U.S. officials were voicing concern about China's espionage and military buildup. According to Pentagon documents reviewed by Reuters, chief U.S. arms buyer Frank Kendall allowed two F-35 suppliers, Northrop Grumman Corp and Honeywell International Inc, to use Chinese magnets for the new warplane's radar system, landing gears and other hardware. Without the waivers, both companies could have faced sanctions for violating federal law and the F-35 program could have faced further delays."

Comments

Re: Don't imagine it stops there.

[Immerman]

So then what should we think of our military that's been over there slaughtering men, women and children in numbers that dwarf anything they're doing to themselves? Not to mention the fact that we're the ones who created the problem in the first place by overthrowing their legitimate democratic government and installing a bloodthirsty despot sympathetic to American interests during the Cold War.

Re: Don't imagine it stops there.

[Immerman]

I didn't say they weren't slaughtering each other just fine, just that they started largely because of us, and whenever we get directly involved we do much worse to no better end. Hell we had an ongoing death toll in Iraq of over a hundred thousand before 9/11. Or was that Afghanistan, I forget. The point is that we've been neck-deep in the Middle East since the fifties at least. Most of the area had actually developed stable democracies, or were at least in the process of gently phasing out monarchies prior to US intervention during the Cold War - whereupon we installed extremist dictators for our own ends, picking from those who had no chance of seizing or holding power legitimately (after all we want them loyal). We can't duck our share of the responsibility for the mess they made when we were propping up their regime the whole time.