Lockheed Martin: Price of F-35 going up

U.S. seeks to ease concerns over F-35 delays, costs

The U.S. Defense Department is restructuring for a third time its $382 billion F-35 program with Lockheed Martin Corp to allow more time for development and testing.

And we need a new fighter jet that costs this much because  ???

Absolutely Shocking!!!

Pentagon, Lockheed see price of F-35 going up

The Next Generation of Warfare

A cyber risk to the U.S.

If this doesn't scare you, I don't know what will.

Though the Pentagon has a cybercommand, it does not cover the domestic civilian economy, including vital infrastructure systems such as the electric power grid, water supplies and the financial system. Many of the computers controlling those utilities lack adequate security measures and could be devastated by viruses launched by hostile states or even hackers. As it is, U.S. companies, from defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin to e-mail carriers such as Google, are under continual assault from China and Russia, which seek to steal industrial or national security secrets and probe for infrastructure weaknesses.

Unfortunately, instead of more adequately funding programs that can protect the U.S. from cyber attack, our elected leaders continue to choose to fund wasteful programs like the Joint Strike Fighter, dubbed The Wild Blue Squander by The New York Times.  Here is a GAO chart illustrating the cost history of the Joint Strike Fighter:

General Dynamics completes acquisition of Force Protection

General Dynamics doubles down on blast-resistant military vehicles

MRAPs are the type of technology that is needed in Afghanistan to save lives; hopefully this merger will allow General Dynamics to produce them quickly and cheaply. Well at least produce them cheaper than the F-35, which shouldn't be too hard...  compared to the Joint Strike Fighter program, MRAP is cheap.
"The FY 2012 Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) budget requests $3.2 billion for sustainment, upgrade, and overhaul of MRAP vehicles."

Here is a graph showing funding for the top 30 acquisition programs in DoD:

Japan orders Joint Strike Fighters and Lockheed Martin applauds

Pentagon hails Japan's F-35 order

Sure, now that we have spent all of our money on R&D for this unneeded new stealth jet fighter, let's just share it with the entire world!  During FY2011, we spent
$11.4 Billion on the Joint Strike Fighter
and it still is not complete and has many problems with it.

Again, when is the next war, in which we will need such advanced technology and participate in dog fights ala World War I, going to occur?  With our current technology, I am positive Snoopy will still defeat the Red Baron.

Why are we funding this program, but are considering cutting counter-IED research while troops die in Afghanistan?

More Costly Technological and Performance Problems with the Joint Strike Fighter

More problems with F-35 joint strike fighter are revealed

With all of the problems this expensive project has had, the only reason this project is still being allowed to go forward is:  1.  R&D money, and 2. "Lockheed has 6,100 people working directly on the F-35 program in Fort Worth. About 3,000 are production workers, and the rest are in development and support. Without increased production, employment at the plant won't grow and may decrease as development and engineering work winds down."

Again, when do we plan on fighting a fighter jet on fighter jet war?  Is there one on the horizon that I don't see?  Why do we need such an advanced fighter jet?  Oh, but funding for counter-IED research needs to be cut while troops die in Afghanistan.  Right.

Keep Fighting!

"As recently as last month, the DoD [Department of Defense] F-35 team provided positive feedback on the technical and financial performance of the GE/Rolls Royce team,” Rice wrote. “This is not our opinion, but the judgment of the managers of the Joint Strike Fighter office.”

The Joint Strike Fighter Office is made up of colonels who will never be promoted to general and want to get a job along with their military retirement check after 30 years. I'm willing to bet the entire office goes to work for a defense contractor after "retiring" from their Pentagon desk job at colonel. Why would they oppose a program that justifies their existence in the private sector; a job that allows them to be "experts" and get paid $200,000 per year after military retirement. Who cares that ground pounders go through a pair of boots every two weeks in Afghanistan and only receive two pairs per year from the military, they think.

See also:
GE woos Pentagon

GE and Rolls Royce woo the Pentagon

Once again, the military industrial complex and beholden politicians are making bad decisions. They don't seem to understand that when one door closes, another opens RE: killing this engine. There will be another project...

The GE-Rolls-Royce team is facing an uphill battle at the Pentagon, where Defense Secretary Robert Gates has already threatened to recommend that the defense bills be vetoed if they contain funding for the secondary engine.

The fixed-price offer comes less than a month before congressional defense committees are expected to start considering the fiscal 2011 budget, renewing their tug-of-war with the administration over the benefits of having two engines for the Pentagon’s largest fighter jet purchase.

The defense committees have provided funding to develop the secondary engine despite the Pentagon’s efforts to kill it over the last four years.

F-35 Work Falls Behind Two More Years

White House gains momentum in F-22 fight

It’s a fight some Democrats would argue that Obama was foolish to make, raising the stakes unnecessarily with early veto threats. But the F-22 termination is Gates’s signature issue in changing the Pentagon budget.

At noon today we will finally see the outcome. Will the Senate vote to spend almost two billion dollars on F-22s that the DoD did not even request? It is nice to see Sen. McCain once again battling pork and leading the anti-F-22 wing of the GOP. It is also disgusting that Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the man who received five deferments during Vietnam and crucified Max Cleland - a Vietnam veteran who lost three limbs - as soft on defense during his first Senate election, is once again all for buying anything a defense company creates so that he can seem strong on defense, something he obviously wasn't very into during his formative years and has been trying to make up for during his political career by supporting the war machine wholeheartedly.

Defense Bills Defy Obama’s First Veto Threat

Among the things the Senate Armed Services Committee voted for that the administration didn't want are:

1. 7 F-22s
2. Development of an alternative engine in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter
3. 9 extra F-18s
4. A 3.4 percent salary increase compared to a 2.9 percent increase requested by the administration - this is how the pork proponents will undoubtedly pitch their plan. "We are for a bigger pay increase, you aren't!"

1st Quarter Financials

Lockheed's profits were down 8.7 percent in the first quarter. They claimed it was because they had higher pension expenses, but I am willing to bet it had something to do with Secretary Gates' (pbuh) attempts to tighten the Air Force's budget belt (e.g. Joint Strike Fighter, cap on F-22 purchases). Or, perhpas the restriction on the use of non-competitive contracts has something to do with it.

Pension Costs Hurt Lockheed Profit

Northrop's first quarter profit rose almost 50 percent.

Northrop's Profit Rises Sharply

Raytheon posted a 14 percent increase in earnings.

Raytheon 1Q Earnings Climb On Broad Sales Growth

Boeing's earnings dropped 47 percent...

Boeing Shares Up Despite Earnings Miss

Saab, who makes parts for both Boeing and Airbus, also took a loss.

Defense Firm Saab Reports Q1 Loss, Cuts 300 Jobs

Support For Lockheed Joint Fighter is 'Very Strong," Gates Says

The pricetag of this project - $298 billion - will probably double once a contract is signed and suddenly a new technology is developed that absolutely must be added to the F-35. This is one of the many reasons why the bottom-up defense appropriations process must be changed. Instead of the Secretary of Defense telling the service secretaries what their budgets are, at the DoD the Secretaries of the Army, Air Force, and Navy, tell the Secretary of Defense what they budgeted for. Then, minimal cuts are made and the DoD budget, second in size only to the Social Security budget, is given to the president.

Although Secretary of Defense Gates has done a great job and fought the Air Force on numerous occasions, his support for the Joint Strike Fighter goes against all of the reform he has been preaching. The Joint Strike Fighter is the epitome of Air Force excess. Less than three years ago, the F-22 Raptor, which the F-35 is supposed to replace, entered service (December 2005). Now the same company that developed the F-22 (Lockheed Martin) is pitching the F-35 to the Air Force and is gaining traction. At a time where there are two wars going on, emerging near peer competitors with inferior MiG based aircraft, and a flailing economy, the F-35 does not seem to be the correct use of government money. To top this off, what are the chances of air to air combat happening anytime soon? Perhaps we should be focusing on the emerging threat of cyber war or other possible forms of war as we leap into the Fifth Generation?