When Money is No Object: the Strange Saga of the F-35 by LEE GAILLARD

When DOD's Director of Operational Test and Evaluation released its annual report to Congress on the performance of US weapons in operational (battlefield) testing, an object of some attention was the section on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.  The report itself (at http://www.dote.osd.mil/pub/reports/FY2012/) made difficult and cryptic reading, and the news reporting covered whatever highlights harried journalists could readily use in short articles.  Little of it probed, in technical terms or otherwise, the meaning and implications.

 

Lee Gaillard has been writing about aviation, weapons and national security for decades and took it upon himself to analize the F-35 using the DOT&E report as the starting point.  His analysis makes important and informative reading for anyone wishing to have more than a superficial understanding of the F-35 and its problems--rooted deeply in the DNA of the aircraft's insanely complex design and its disengenuous (bait and switch) acquisition plan.

 

This highly informative essay-length analysis is available at Counterpunch at http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/03/04/when-money-is-no-object-the-strange-saga-of-the-f-35/ and below.

 

March 04, 2013

 

Counterpunch

 

'Concurrent Production' Exacerbates Multiple Problems

When Money is No Object:

the Strange Saga of the F-35

by LEE GAILLARD