Quote:Hasn't the JSF program been little more than an utter debacle for a decade now? I mean, Lockheed doesn't care. They just say, "Oops, found another problem. It'll cost an extra $100M to fix," and Uncle Sam hands them a check.

 

Such is life when you try to try to fill three completely different missions with one aircraft that isn't optimized for any of them.

 

As someone very familiar with the program, allow me to give my thoughts regarding this program.

 

First, my background regarding this project.  For many years I have been involved in military aviation.  I was involved with building a trainer that is utilized for this particular aircraft.  I can't go into much detail or get into specifics, but let's just say that I am very familiar with it.

 

I believe that the program is flawed and was destined to fail from the beginning.  The initial idea was a "cross branch" platform that could be utilized by the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.  However, each branch of service has different needs/requirements in order to do their duties.  What happens is that an aircraft say for instance "works well" for the Navy doesn't necessarily do what the Marine Corps needs.  So "features" are added to accommodate the Marine Corp's requirements, but it doesn't meet the Air Force's requirements.  So even more "features" are added to it.  The aircraft itself is highly specialized and depends on computer software in order for it to do what it needs to do.  Whenever a new "feature" is introduced, it requires several lines of code to be written and tested.  It's a never-ending cycle.

 

I don't fault Lockheed (though they will take the brunt of the "blame" for this).  I blame (surprise, surprise) our government for this.

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