This Map Explains Why The F-35 Has Turned Into A Trillion-Dollar Fiasco

[unhappycamper]

http://www.businessinsider.com/this-map-show-the-f-35-fiasco-2015-1



This Map Explains Why The F-35 Has Turned Into A Trillion-Dollar Fiasco
Jeremy Bender, Armin Rosen and Skye Gould
Jan. 20, 2015, 3:24 PM

It's been a bad month for the F-35, the ever-delayed fifth-generation fighter plane. A congressional report obtained by Bloomberg this week identifies a range of flaws with the plane's computer system, while a different software glitch discovered in December could render the plane's on-board cannon unusable for years. On top of that, NSA leaker Edward Snowden recently claimed that China stole terabytes of data relating to the F-35 program. The veracity of that specific claim aside, espionage probably helps explain why China has made so much progress in the development of its own next-generation fleet.

The Pentagon has stuck with the F-35 Lightning Joint Strike Fighter program despite dozens of earlier technical problems and delays, strategic concerns, and massive cost overruns that have nearly doubled the initial cost estimate, raising the cost of building the planes to around $400 billion with a lifetime cost of up to $1.5 trillion.

One reason why the project has become such a boondoggle is that many states and countries are significantly invested in the plane, relying on its production for income and jobs and making it politically untenable to kill or scale back the program.

Every US state but Alaska, Hawaii, Nebraska, and Wyoming has economic ties to the F-35, with 18 states counting on the project for $100 million or more in economic activity, according to primary contractor Lockheed Martin.

[Sherman A1]

1. Thus

explaining pretty much everything, as to why this absurd waste of tax dollars is allowed to continue...................

[daleanime]

2. K&R....

Bookmarked and stolen.