Politico's Morning Defense is reporting today:
An amendment offered by Rep. Tammy Duckworth that would have limited funding for the F-35 Lightning II failed. Duckworth said she supported the continued development of the F-35 but wanted to "fence the funding" until the Pentagon reports to Congress on the testing of some technical components that have a troubled past.
In my opinion this is a good thing. Holding up the whole program while someone in Congress decides whether or not they are satisfied with the progress being made on some of the components is foolish. Certainly progress should be both stressed and demanded. But this isn't the way to go about it. We need this aircraft in the field as quickly as it is safe and capable. Holding up it's progress because night vision acuity isn't quite where we want it yet isn't how one does that.
Graff
An amendment offered by Rep. Tammy Duckworth that would have limited funding for the F-35 Lightning II failed. Duckworth said she supported the continued development of the F-35 but wanted to "fence the funding" until the Pentagon reports to Congress on the testing of some technical components that have a troubled past.
In my opinion this is a good thing. Holding up the whole program while someone in Congress decides whether or not they are satisfied with the progress being made on some of the components is foolish. Certainly progress should be both stressed and demanded. But this isn't the way to go about it. We need this aircraft in the field as quickly as it is safe and capable. Holding up it's progress because night vision acuity isn't quite where we want it yet isn't how one does that.
Graff
Can you guess which company has its HQ in Chicago (Remember that Duckworth is from Illinois)?
ReplyDeleteCan you guess which company is in direct competition with the F-35 in at least two contests and would profit from a delay in the F-35?
Can you guess which company has paid over a Billion since 1995 in misconduct fines (LM has had about half that) and whose misconduct has caused a restart in a major aviation program?
The answer to all three is....
You guessed it....
Boeing