The U.S. May Build 500 Jets Before Finding Out If the F-35 Works

[unhappycamper]

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-01-29/pentagon-risks-building-500-f-35s-before-completing-combat-tests



The U.S. May Build 500 Jets Before Finding Out If the F-35 Works
Anthony Capaccio
January 29, 2016 — 12:00 AM EST Updated on January 29, 2016 — 3:11 PM EST

Tests of how Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 will perform in combat won’t begin until at least August 2018, a year later than planned, and more than 500 of the fighter jets may be built before the assessment is complete, according to the Pentagon’s test office.

“These aircraft will require a still-to-be-determined list of modifications” to be fully capable, Michael Gilmore, the U.S. Defense Department’s top weapons tester, said in his annual report on major programs. “However, these modifications may be unaffordable for the services as they consider the cost of upgrading these early lots of aircraft while the program continues to increase production rates in a fiscally constrained environment.”

The Defense Department plans a fleet of 2,443 F-35s for the U.S., plus hundreds more to be purchased by allies, including the U.K., Italy, Australia and Japan. The costliest U.S. weapons program, at a projected $391 billion, the F-35 is being produced even as it’s still being developed, a strategy a top Pentagon official once called “acquisition malpractice.”

Despite the plane’s many problems, “F-35 production rates have been allowed to steadily increase to large rates,” Gilmore said in his annual report to congressional defense committees.

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This is the problem with Design As We Go methodology.

[bemildred]

1. Building them is what matters, they don't have to work right.

(That may be sarcasm, but it is also a remarkably accurate description of how things are.)

[TexasProgresive]

2. In my mind I rewrote the title of your post to

The U.S. May Build 500 Jets Before Finding Out the F-35 Doesn't Work