Somebody needs to go after the F-35, which is way over budget and has various operational shortfalls. From Duane Norman at fmshooter.com:
If Trump’s tweet and subsequent commentary about Air Force One’s bloated price tag didn’t scare all defense and government contractors, his tweet about the F-35 should frighten them beyond belief.
As I have previously detailed, at an estimated $1.5 trillion dollars, the F-35 is perhaps the biggest defense program in the US DoD’s budget, and unsurprisingly, it is far behind schedule and way over budget. But the worst part about the F-35 is that it just can’t do the job it was designed for. Essentially a stealthy bomb chucker with a little bit of maneuverability, air-to-air capability, and a lot of high-priced avionics, it doesn’t even beat the jet its supposed to replace (the F-16) in within-visual-range engagements, and is almost totally reliant on its stealth to avoid them.
All of this begs the question – why didn’t the DoD instead choose to extend the F-22 line, and build a stealth fighter/bomber with more range and payload, scrapping the maneuverability requirement which held the plane’s performance back?
This morning, President-elect Trump turned his tweeting attention from Air Force One to the F-35 program, as seen below:
The F-35 program and cost is out of control. Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20th.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2016
However, this is hardly the first time Trump has mentioned the F-35’s bloated cost and underperformance. Over a year ago, Trump threatened to cancel the F-35 when his campaign was just beginning, Back in February, Trump detailed his objections to the F-35 on the campaign trail, and Trump continued his threats to cancel or amend the F-35 program throughout his campaign. Clearly, his objections have not disappeared now that he has won.
To continue reading: Not Content To Stop With Air Force One, Trump Is Now Going After The F-35
If Trump does go after this turkey, I wish him all the luck in the world. He’s going to need it.
BTW, if you’ve never read The War Nerd, and have any interest in a brutally realistic take on military-political issues, I highly recommend checking him out. Search “Saddam Died Beautiful” for a representative sample. N.B.: I don’t share his enthusiasm for blood-letting – which is actually a lot more subtle and nuanced than a superficial perusal of his writing would indicate – but, these days, I can damn sure understand it. And the Saddam piece is as excruciatingly astute an exercise in realpolitik analysis as I’ve ever seen.
Bob: Bureaucracy represents the manifestation of politics over economics. It can only continue and “thrive” as long as the flow of money it commands is unimpeded.
The Pentagon, owing to the size of it’s flow of money, is THE largest and most influential of Leviathan’s bureaucracies. It’s politics, built upon said money flow – a portion of which is dedicated to additional money flows, dominates whatever value a particular weapons system might actually represent. In such an environment it becomes very difficult to determine whether a weapons system is needed, worthwhile, or more seriously, is even fit for its intended purpose.
On the other side of the coin, having worked for IBM Federal Systems, and married to a woman who worked on the F-35 program for Lockheed, another fact emerges that is SOP within a bureaucracy – public or private (Lockheed to be sure has its own bureaucracy).
Bureaucrats, by their very nature, tend to be focused NOT on the achievement of a positive result as much as they are focused on the avoidance of a negative one. This produces all manner of political and “non-economic” behavior – often disguised as “technical issues.”
In the case of the F-35, it has been well over a decade in development with constantly rising cost estimates and functional difficulties. The root cause of this, in my opinion, is constantly changing and evolving “requirements.” Those working for the Pentagon are endlessly attempting to incorporate ever-more exotic performance capabilities in the product, while “covering their asses” as to any potential criticism of the final product. As any idiot understands, constantly changing requirements potentially invalidates any established design. Further, it means delay and, its inescapable companion, increased cost.
Politics, to the extent it rises to dominate human relations, destroys all other aspects of human relations. The Pentagon and the F-35 are but the most recent and perhaps the most visible of examples.
Dave
Dave,
I couldn’t agree with you more, especially your last paragraph. One of the logical implications of that paragraph would be that to minimize the baleful effects of politics, one must minimize the size, scope, and power of the government.
Bob
Yes! And with respect to private entities, management, to the extent it has not itself become focused on politics and “the political,” must remain ever-vigilant in assuring it prevents the rise within the organization of those individuals who are, for whatever character flaw, focused on the political at the expense of actual achievement.
i.e. Ass-kissers