Posted on 12/22/2016 4:07:34 PM PST by libstripper
The last 46 was built in 71.
No doubt about that. In those days defense contractors did not make huge profit on defense contracts, in fact I believe they were contractually limited to make 5% to 8% profit. But now since most CEO pay packages are determined by quarterly profit margins, they have an incentive to lie cheat and steal so their pay packages are larger. Also, in Congress, people like McCain and Graham always talk a good game about making defense contractors keep their costs low but behind the scenes they’ve helped drive the acquisition changes at the Pentagon that have led to this mess.
We always seem to compound the weapons acquisition mistake by cutting the program or the total buy AFTER the total design & capital investments costs have been sunk. It’s effing depressing.
The F-35 may escape that fate if it performs well in testing and early deployment. Although the early reports are mixed, there is cause for optimism.
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