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May 02, 2012

Comments

Dfens

Yes, and this is why I do not feel sorry for the US taxpayer. They beg to have their money taken from them. They are too damn stupid to keep it. The defense contractors, on the other hand, tell you what to think and when to think it. They are so much smarter than you people, they really do deserve to take your money away. After all, a fool and his money should be parted, and the sooner the better.

Helen S.  Pollin

STOP THE F-35! IT IS TO EXPENSIVE AND NOT AS GOOD AS THE HYPE.

DO NOT BUILD ANY F-35 PLANES

Garry Spencer

It is obvious that the complexity (and expense) increases by the square of what it is designed to do. Congress evidently never heard of the KISS principle, "Keep It Simple Stupid". No one has ever come up with a good cheap Flying automobile. No one ever will. I have heard it said an elephant is a race horse designed by a committee. Nothing added to the existing program will make it any more affordable. We will NEVER be able to carve a universal peg to fit multiple holes. We want a fighter, a bomber, and a ground support airplane. Fine, build three then and be done with it. We do not have enough oil to sell to China to pay for the program this has developed into. Time to start over.

hokie_1997

There's no real new information or analysis in here. And the author doesn't propose a realistic solution. So we should junk JSF and just build a cheaper/better aircraft? Great, thanks for that....

What should this aircraft look like? When will it be ready?
And would starting over from a 'clean sheet' design really be more cost-effective? What about the billions of dollars already sunk into JSF R&D?

I'm no defender of the JSF, but it's very easy to sit in the aisles and pithily point out the faults. Lord knows there's no lack of them of them in the JSF. It's much harder, but immeninently more useful, to point out realistic alternative courses of action.

Dfens

So yet again POGO is joining Lockheed Martin in calling for an end to the F-35 program. After all, the defense contracting giant has already scooped up all of the free money. If they are forced to build actual jets, there are many risks, too many to be covered by their slim 10% profit margin. So both Winslow Wheeler and LM would like you to cancel this jet now so they can go on to the next development program which they promise (cross their hearts) will be better despite the fact that the last 30 years of weapons development has shown that each new program is worse than its predicessor, not better.

But hey, what does POGO or Winslow Wheeler care about another $40 to $60 billion of your tax dollars being flushed down a toilet without any weapons to show for the money spent? It's not their money. Heck, to them the fact that you'd have spent nearly $100 billion on development with nothing to show for it doesn't even rate mentioning in article after article.

Good to see POGO has hired another defense industry schill. Too bad there isn't anyone around too look out for the US taxpayer's interests.

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