Name:   Talullahhound - Subject:   Dems finally turn on hillary Date:   12/12/2016 8:06:58 PM

I read that article.  My thought?  I'm surprised it was only $125B.  We've been pouring money into Afghanistan, the Corps of Engineers have been over there building stuff and the military was given money just to pay off tribal leaders.  There is also a bit of fraud and waste in the government credit card program.  I don't know what the scope of their study was or over what period of time. 

As far as the F-35, I had an insightful look at that program while I helped them with their technology transfer issues.  First of all, the aircraft is the most complex aircraft we have ever built.  It is fully integrated with a lot of sensors that take the data from the sensors, analyze it, integrated it with data from other sensors and put it on the display for the pilot.  You don't need to be an expert in software development or execution to realize that is a very complex task.  There were a lot of change orders and change orders cost money.  Secondly, a lot of the physical characteristics in terms of materials used on the plane.  And as you can probably imagine, there were a great many changes that were needed in the production.  We imposed a lot of requirements onto Lockheed and other participating companies as far as software and node security in the transmission of data to the European companies participating in the program. And then there is Congress. If memory serves me correctly, 45 U.S states had something industrial as it related to the F-35 and not one member of Congress is going to let anyone even talk about cancelling the program, because when you cut jobs, it's harder to get re-elected.  Additionally, at one point Congress funded a second engine manufacturer - a move that no one in DoD supported.  Several times Congress has reduced the money for the program and extended the production which end up costing more money has Contractors do not get to take advantage of the economies of scale of parts puchases and there is also a cost associated with companies keeping the skilled labor onboard, even through breaks in production.   Then there was the testing, which if you recall did not go well in the beginning.  In fact, I still believe there is concerns about the safety of the aircraft. 

One other thing I would like you to keep in mind and that is the US User.  It would be nice to think that the design is done and locked in but that isn't how it works.   As soon as you get the design finalized the user decides he needs an additional bell or whistle on the thing, or they come up with another mission to use it for, and then there are different versions to meet those needs.  So decisions that have been made already have to be remade and that costs money too.  Keep in mind, we're not making widgets, but highly sophisticated aircraft.  So before anyone knocks  Lockheed in the head and say that they have overcharged the government, but I wouldn't take that bet at this point.