It’s probably easier to put a man on Mars than it is to please the military with a new fighter jet. Every time someone tries—as our worst defense secretary, Robert McNamara, did in the 1960s—the project fails. Invariably, what works for one of the three branches—Air Force, Navy, Marines—fails to meet the needs of the others. McNamara’s project, the infamous Tactical Fighter Experimental (TFX), was so far off the mark that the Navy refused to buy it. Only the Air Force found a niche bomber role for a small number of the resulting aircraft, called the F-111, which was too heavy and unwieldy to be anybody’s fighter. It was enormously expensive and made no one happy.
Fifty years later, the Pentagon seems to have forgotten the lessons it learned, or should have learned, from the TFX. A case in point is the new “Joint Strike Fighter,” better known as the F-35 Lightning II. The F-35 is the most expensive weapons program in Pentagon history. And the military is all in,".........................
The common platform is not necessarily a bad idea, works for Auto industry- see GM Trucks, SUVs.
Production before test flights, not sure about that. Seems like they are cutting corners and pushing development schedules which are very long in the military.
Yes they are expensive, but our planes are 2nd to nobody. Having worked in this area gives one a different perspective. These are not Cessna puddle jumpers or crop dusters with Walmart OTS parts.
If you want to be, press one. If you want not to be, press 2
Republicans are red, democrats are blue, neither of them, gives a flip about you.
