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| Pentagon mum after Musk calls its most expensive project 'obsolete' |
| 2024-11-27 |
| [JustTheNews] In May, The U.S. Government Accountability Office found the cost of the Pentagon's most expensive weapon system was projected to increase by more than 40% despite plans to use the stealth fighter less, in part because of reliability issues. Pentagon officials declined to comment on Elon Musk's critical assessment of its most expensive project, the F-35 stealth fighter. Tesla CEO and SpaceX leader Elon Musk called the Pentagon's stealth fighter "obsolete." "The F-35 design was broken at the requirements level, because it was required to be too many things to too many people," Musk wrote on X. "This made it an expensive & complex jack of all trades, master of none. Success was never in the set of possible outcomes. And manned fighter jets are obsolete in the age of drones anyway. Will just get pilots killed." In May, The U.S. Government Accountability Office found the cost of the Pentagon's most expensive weapon system was projected to increase by more than 40% despite plans to use the stealth fighter less, in part because of reliability issues. The U.S. Department of Defense's F-35 Lightning II is the most advanced and costly weapon system in the U.S. arsenal. It's a joint, multinational program that includes the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, seven international partners and foreign military sales customers. The Pentagon has about 630 F-35s. It plans to buy about 1,800 more. And it intends to use them through 2088. DOD estimates the F-35 program will cost over $2 trillion to buy, operate, and sustain over its lifetime. On Tuesday, a reporter asked Defense Department Press Secretary Air Force Major General Pat Ryder about Musk's comments on the F-35. "Yeah, as I'm sure you can appreciate, Mr. Musk is, currently, a private citizen, I'm not going to make any comments about what a private citizen may have to say about the F-35." The GAO report found the F-35 program fell short of its goals. "The F-35 fleet is not meeting most of its performance goals, including those for availability and for reliability and maintainability, according to DOD and contractor data," according to the report. "We have consistently found that the F-35 fleet is not meeting its availability goals, which are measured by mission capable rates despite increasing projected costs." President-elect Donald Trump recently picked Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy leaders of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Trump said the new group will allow his administration to "dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulation, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure federal agencies." Ramaswamy and Musk detailed some of their plans for DOGE last week. Those plans include a focus on military spending after the Pentagon failed another audit. "The Pentagon recently failed its seventh consecutive audit, suggesting that the agency's leadership has little idea how its annual budget of more than $800 billion is spent," they wrote in an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal. The U.S. Department of Defense's annual audit once again resulted in a disclaimer opinion. That means the federal government's largest agency — with a budget of more than $840 billion — can't fully explain its spending. The disclaimer this year was expected. And it's expected again next year. The Pentagon previously said it will be able to accurately account for its spending by 2027. Related: F-35 11/23/2024 Analysts warn ICC arrest warrants could pave way to future arms embargoes on Israel F-35 11/18/2024 France to challenge ruling allowing Israeli firms to exhibit at defense shows F-35 11/17/2024 China patrols at disputed shoal; Manila summons Beijing’s envoy Related: Government Accountability Office: 2024-10-18 Feds have unchecked power under appeals ruling on abortion funding, groups warn Government Accountability Office: 2024-09-11 Watchdog challenges SOCOM's plan to buy new armed aircraft to watch over special ops troops Government Accountability Office: 2024-07-31 Pentagon Finds Another $2 Billion In Ukraine Aid 'Accounting Errors' |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #7 ^ A-yup |
| Posted by: Frank G 2024-11-27 21:43 |
| #6 What an interesting theory Anom. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2024-11-27 21:19 |
| #5 My take is that the F-35 project is a trojan horse concealing the development and deployment of a number of other, far more effective, dark-budget killing machines. |
| Posted by: Anomalous Sources 2024-11-27 19:53 |
| #4 I think the plan for the F/A-XX, which would be a 6th generation fighter/bomber will sacrifice speed. The theory is, IIUC, that if the enemy can't see you, well you don't need to be that fast. This should, in theory, allow a less expensive product to be developed. |
| Posted by: Lord Garth 2024-11-27 17:42 |
| #3 During manufacturing of the F-35 skins, the L-M requirements were far in excess of anything my former company ever experienced; some good, some not so much. Having to use a L-M mandated cheesecloth for wiping down w/solvent, costing over 2X the amount of “ACME” cheesecloth is just one example. |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2024-11-27 15:24 |
| #2 "The F-35 design was broken at the requirements level, because it was required to be too many things to too many people," The art of design is knowing what to leave out, not what to put in. As I understand, the problem with the current F-35 is heat - all those fancy avionics are hot. As originally specified, the plane had sufficient cooling. But as with all things designed by committee, feature creep set in. More features, more electronics, more heat. Unfortunately, adding a radiator to a stealth fighter is a greater challenge than squeezing in yet another box of avionics. For an amusing take on feature creep, watch "The Pentagon Wars" - a comedic version of how the Bradley Fighting Vehicle came to be what it is today versus how it started life as a light cavalry scout vehicle. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2024-11-27 15:10 |
| #1 In Augustine's Laws it was projected that one day the Pentagon will have such an expensive aircraft that it could only afford one. At which time the Navy and Air Force will use it on alternating date, with the Marine Corps getting it on Leap Day. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2024-11-27 14:01 |