Critical defense program breaks thru RESTRCTURING line ..vote on health care reform controlled by same people looms

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WIRED:

The Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing today on the future of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and things are not looking pretty for the next-generation stealth aircraft. It's likely the Air Force will have to declare the program has soared past a key cost-containment barrier, in addition to being more than two years behind schedule.

The Air Force will have to declare a Nunn-McCurdy breach, which could force a serious restructuring of the program, according to a Reuters story quoting Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter.

A new Government Accountability Office report, issued today, puts it in simple numbers. "Total estimated acquisition costs have increased $46 billion (.pdf) and development extended 2 ½ years, compared to the program baseline approved in 2007," the report states.

The cost per plane has risen dramatically as well: The unit cost has ballooned to $112 million per aircraft. When the "system development" phase began in October 2001, the cost was reckoned at $69 million per plane.

Aerospace journalist Bill Sweetman, who was live-blogging the hearing at Ares, notes that the average procurement cost has spiked 18 percent, just within the past three years. Poking fun at some old talking points from manufacturer Lockheed Martin, he writes: "Maybe Lockheed Martin will stop using silly numbers in public now."

But hey, no big deal this is only the most critical program we have going.
Air superiority.
Going on 3 years late.
WAY over budget.

Never mind Israel, maybe WE should consider the SU-35, and Pak-FA. Our auto makers can't make a profit (save Ford). Our banks risk money so wildly while handing out instant bonuses the govt takes THEIR risk. We produce less and less, with such a decreasing fervor that critical metals for strategic purposes are refined in China EVEN IF MINED HERE. And our representative democracy now considers passing critical bills by declaring them passed as a matter of procedural cuteness because voters putting pressure on their own representatives makes it hard for govt to do what they insist is best, against the mid term will of an enraged public ..rather than execute the constitution, AND VOTE.

Is it any wonder only 1 of 5 people here have enough faith in govt to say it has their consent to govern.

The United States is one tiny movement away from the USSR's tipping point joke...'they pretend to pay us and we pretend to work'.

And those in power reject the idea that THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY OF THIS, instead blaming others like 8 year old children.

And tell us to have faith in them on our health.

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