Web Letters: Back to the New Frontier: A Short History of Change

Thanks for reminding us of the F-111 boondoggle of the 1960s, but instead of updating that story by following the trail of General Dynamics, it's more revealing to remain at the Texas plant that built the F-111. We're repeating many of the same mistakes, including using the same contractor, with today's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).

The F-111 Tactical Fighter Experimental (TFX) was supposed to save money by designing one aircraft to serve multiple military branches, just as today's JSF is supposed to do. Instead, TFX had massive cost overruns and exceeded weight requirements, leading the Navy to cancel its production contract.

The Ft. Worth, Texas, engineering and production plant that gave us TFX was owned by General Dynamics, as Cockburn points out. Now it's owned by Lockheed Martin, and is the JSF prime contractor. It's the same plant with the same history, just a different corporate logo

Boeing was expected to win TFX with their technically superior, lower-cost proposal. When GD Ft. Worth was selected, Boeing complained, leading to Congressional hearings. Navy Secretary Fred Korth resigned when his business connections to the Ft. Worth plant were revealed. When Congress again investigated TFX in 1969, they focused on the plane's poor performance (including multiple crashes in Vietnam due to equipment malfunction), forged test data and runaway cost growth.

JSF was awarded to the same Ft. Worth plant in 2001, again beating out Boeing. Development is estimated at $49 billion, with total production adding up to $245 billion. JSF has also suffered from cost growth, and has already had one major redesign to bring the aircraft weight back into specification--the same problem TFX had.

The GAO has issued several reports critical of JSF, including its cost growth and the decision to begin production before testing is complete, calling the program "unexecutable." Yet Congress keeps funding it! When will someone question this "earmark"?

Robert McMahon

Lansdowne, PA

Israel is the second-largest supplier of arms to China just behind Russia. Israel is the second-largest supplier of arms to China, just behind Russia. They had a contract to supply and repair drones to China. Our Defense department was very annoyed about that deal. There are many scare stories about Chinese spies operating in America, but in many cases they don't have to spy for American technology, they just buy it from the Israelis. They also have similar deals with Turkey.

Boeing built their Arrow Missile Defense System, which is as useless as our systems. They have been offered other systems from other companies, which they wisely turned down and went with an Israeli company. I doubt if it will be much better, but they are making their own mistakes. The EU was stupid enough to buy into that "system" in Poland and the Czech Republic. A former head of that Israeli company was asked what he thought was the best Missile defense system. He replied, "Diplomacy"! Missile Defense Systems are another form of corporate welfare, along with the various civilian contractors "supporting" our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. If you want save some money for taxpayers, cutting off these private contractors is the way to go. Privatization is very expensive, with the graft and cost overruns that accompany it. Government is cheaper!

Pervis J. Casey

Riverside, CA