This series reveals a political and military system that is sick in its core. This toxic stew of the F-35's high cost, abetted by concurrent production, lagging performance and continuing design problems, has put U.S. and allied air power into a dive. The dive will steepen so long as F-35 production at the currently-projected rates continues. I recommend starting with Part 5, the summary by Mark Thompson of TIME Battleland Blog.
Part 1: The new era of F-35 good feelings
Part 2: Alphabet Soup: PAUCs, APUCs, URFs, Cost Variances and Other Pricing Dodges
Part 3: The deadly empirical data
Part 4: Different planes, common problems
Part 5: On final approach to fighter fiscal sanity
Phi Beta Iota: President Obama is at a fork in the road. He can continue business as usual and try to gut it out for three more years as the government and the economy collapse around him, aided by the BRICS and everyone else (less the UK poodle) saying “ENOUGH!” or he can propose to his Wall Street money and Texas energy masters a new strategy based on ethical evidence-based decision-support. They might listen — killing the golden goose is not good for anyone including the 1%. Truth & reconciliation — and clearly-illuminated exit strategies for the corrupt — are a major aspect of any transformation. Pardons up front, no problem. Obama surely means well, but no one around him is capable of telling him the truth in a holistic useful manner.
Bob Seelert, Chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide (New York): When things are not going well, until you get the truth out on the table, no matter how ugly, you are not in a position to deal with it.
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