Forum: Program and politics

Pentagon Acquisitions Board Meets to Discuss F-35 Feb. 21, 2012 By DAVE MAJUMDAR

http://www.defensenews.com/article/2012 ... scuss-F-35

"The Pentagon’s Defense Acquisitions Board (DAB) met Feb. 21 to discuss the tri-service F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, a defense official confirmed.

The meeting, which began about 3:30 p.m., was chaired by acting Pentagon procurement chief Frank Kendall. The DAB will almost certainly recertify the program after its 2010 Nunn-McCurdy breach and make a Milestone B decision, which would continue the program, the official said. A Nunn-McCurdy breach occurs when the unit cost goes above a certain threshold....

...Once the DAB is complete, the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps will formally set dates for the jets’ initial operational capability. The three services will buy a total of 2,443 jets — 1,763 F-35As for the Air Force, while the Navy and Marines will buy a total of 680 F-35B short take-off vertical-landing planes and F-35C carrier variants. The Marines want 340 F-35Bs and 80 F-35Cs while the Navy wants 260 F-35Cs...."

Always more at the URL jump....

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What the program can really benefit from is more empirical data from actually operating the F-35 more extensively so they can refine their projections for the jets' lifecycle costs and make a dent on that $1 Trillion figure that seems to have mesmerized Congress and the public. Deferring purchases for later will slow down the process but eventually more accurate data will be available.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... ms?curpg=1