Forum: General F-35 Forum

"President Barack Obama’s nominee for Air Force chief of staff said today it’s “mandatory” that the Pentagon put pressure on Lockheed Martin Corp. to control costs for its F-35 fighter jet.

“ Our manufacturing process, our assembly line, is not up to speed and running to the level we’d hope it would be at this point in time,” General Mark Welsh told the Senate Armed Services Committee today at his confirmation hearing.

This means “we have not been able to build and deliver jets on schedule or on an accurately predicted cost,” Welsh, now commander of the U.S. Air Force in Europe, said today."

"“If we can’t clearly identify how much this airplane will cost to buy and to fly after we acquire it, then we really have no idea how many airplanes we can afford or how many we should expect to receive,” he said.

“Pressure on the company, on the acquisition process internal to the department is mandatory,” Welsh said. “We have to stay focused and if confirmed, that would be a daily event for me,” said Welsh."

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-0 ... neral-says

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Funny how you left out the important parts of the article.

Quote:

Even so, Welsh listed the F-35 as the service’s top modernization priority, along with the Boeing Co. (BA) (BA)’s KC-46 tanker and the new Long Range Strike bomber.

“There’s some good things happening,” he said. “The aircraft that have been delivered, we’ve flown almost 1,900 hours” and the F-35 Air Force variant “is performing very well in the test programs,” he said. “I am excited about the airplane.”

Lip service to the more miserly members of the Senate isn't news. The F-35 being the Air Force's top modernization priority isn't really news either, but it is a concrete statement. "We don't know how many we'll be able to afford," is not. Flying 1,900 hours and performing very well in testing is news.

But it's no fun to be fair and tell the whole story. Remember, our stuff always sucks and never delivers and theirs always does.

Forum: General F-35 Forum

Welch: Pressure on Lockheed Over F-35 [Cost] Mandatory