Consider the first sentence in the Wired.com report attached below -- "If the Pentagon doesnýt get its Joint Strike Fighter just right, the U.S. military is screwed." Just right? Give me a break.

The JSF, like all Pentagon procurements, is in deep trouble, and Secretary Gates just fired the two-star program director and will replace him with three-star -- apparently operating under the assumption that pumping up an already bloated bureaucracy will get the JSF problem "just right." That is more nonsense -- this disaster was written in the wind: the seeds were planted in the early 1990s, and the outcome was perfectly predictable -- the simple fact is that the JSF was doomed not to be the "right stuff" from the very beginning.

Of course the "wired" report, true to the spirit to today's context-free breathless media hype, says nothing about how this screwing came about. It is presented as a sudden illumination.

In fact, the screwing is really a self inflicted wound that was easily foreseen and could have been easily avoided, had the Pentagon's civilian and military leadership in the 1990s had the courage to apply a little common sense and a sense of fiduciary discipline for the money entrusted to them.

Chuck Spinney

-------------------------------------- Wired.com/DangerRoom February 1, 2010

Gates Sacks Stealth Jet Chief, Blasts ýTroubling Recordý of Crucial Plane

By Noah Shachtman

If the Pentagon doesnýt get its Joint Strike Fighter just right, the U.S. military is screwed. Which is why its a such serious, serious problem this stealthy, all-purpose jet has had such a ýtroubling performance record,ý according to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Things have gone so wrong that Gates just announced heýs sacking the head of the star-crossed, nearly $350 billion program and is withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in performance fees to JSF-maker Lockheed Martin. ýWhen things go wrong, people will be held accountable,ý Gates told reporters.

The Air Force, the Marines, and the Navy are all counting on the stealthy F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to serve as its aircraft of the future, replacing everything from the A-10 to the F-16 to the F/A-18. Itýs meant to knock out the most advanced missile sites, spot the most elusive terrorists, and win dogfights with the most sophisticated jets from Russia or China ý all at a fraction of the price of the much-ballyhooed F-22 Raptor. Gates calls it the ýbackboneý of ýAmerican air superiority.ý Without the promise of the JSF, Gates wouldýve never convinced Congress to stop production of the Raptor, the Air Forceýs most advanced dogfighter. By the time the program ends, there are supposed to be more than 2,400 of the planes in the American inventory, flying off of aircraft carriers, taking off from a conventional runway, or zipping straight up into the sky.

That is, if the JSF program works as planned. So far, that performance has ýnot been what it shouldý Gates said. Total costs have ballooned by more than 45% since the programýs inception. According to some reports, the stealth jet isnýt even that stealthy. Its engines run the risk of burning holes in the decks of the ships its supposed to lift off from. Final tests for the plane could be pushed back until as late as 2016, a two-year delay.

For all these troubles ý and more ý Gates has fired the JSF program manager, two-star Major General David Heinz. In his place, heýll install a three-star officer. Gates will hold back $614 million in performance awards to Lockheed Martin ý a withholding the defense contractor wonýt fight.

The Pentagon will spend $11 billion on the JSF next year, buying 43 planes. Thatýs about as much as this yearýs F-35 purchase. But the program will be restructured, adding 13 more months of research and testing. Gates told the Pentagon press corps that heýs now confident the program will be able to go forward. ýThere are no insurmountable problems, technological or otherwise,ý he said. But such assurances have been made before.