The long and expensive saga of the F-35 fighter jet took another turn when Canada announced it would reconsider its promised purchase of 65 of the Lockheed Martin-built “Chevrolet of the sky.” The cost overruns were simply too much for conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper to defend after an independent auditor put the combined purchase and maintenance price of the order at $46 billion over the 42-year life of the project; in 2010, the Canadian government put the cost of the purchase alone at $9 billion. Canada’s decision should be a wake-up call to the Pentagon: Repeated contractual overruns not only affect the US defense budget, but also provoke convulsions in the defense market as a whole.
In the wake of Canada’s decision, the Pentagon needs to reassess its own level of commitment to the whole F-35 project.
Comments
The Pentagon budget could probably be cut 25 to 33% with no effect on our ability to defend the nation. All this squabbling over the deficit and the answer stands plainly in view. The highly skilled defense industry workers would become the source of workers for more durable goods that would benefit our society. Both sides of the political aisle have engaged in this misplacement of the hard earned money we send in taxes.
How much could we save if we cut benefits to illegal aliens? Or got more of the "47%" off the couch and pushing a broom?
Probably a lot less than you think. Whay don't you come out of the shallow end of the pool.
One thing that always irks me about the defense industry jobs arguement is that it is never mentioned that a disproportionate share of the money spent goes to the upper management of those defense companies. In corporate America ther is no downside to incompetence if you are far enough up the food chain.
Is this one of the 20 bombers that Obama is sending to Mohammed Morsi of Egypt, that could be used aganst Israel? ? Funny, the Globe never mentions about that.