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The Pentagon is accelerating production of Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-35 jet even though the planes already delivered are facing "significantly longer repair times" than planned because maintenance facilities are six years behind schedule, according to a draft audit.
The time to repair a part has averaged 172 days -- "twice the program's objective" -- the Government Accountability Office, Congress's watchdog agency, found. The shortages are "degrading readiness" because the fighter jets "were unable to fly about 22 percent of the time" from January through August for lack of needed parts.
[...] The F-35 program office and Lockheed have identified steps to increase parts availability "to prevent these challenges from worsening" as aircraft numbers increase, the GAO said, but Pentagon documentation indicates "the program's ability to speed up this time line is uncertain."
The GAO also disclosed that the F-35B -- the Marine Corps version of the fighter that's scheduled to begin ship deployments next year -- won't have required maintenance and repair capabilities at sea and "will likely experience degraded readiness."
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday November 05 2017, @08:45PM (5 children)
Let me give you an example. A little before I took office there was a terrible article about the F-35 fighter jet. It was hundreds of billions of dollars over budget. It was seven years behind schedule. It was a disaster. So I called in Lockheed and I said, "I'm sorry, we're going to have to bid this out to another company, namely Boeing," or whoever else. But Boeing. And I called in Boeing and I started getting competing offers back and forth. I saved $725 million on the 90 planes. Just 90. Now there are 3,000 planes that are going to be ordered. On 90 planes I saved $725 million. It's actually a little bit more than that, but it's $725 million. General Mattis, who had to sign the deal when it came to his office, said, "I've never seen anything like this in my life." We went from a company that wanted more money for the planes to a company that cut. And the reason they cut -- same planes, same everything -- was because of me. I mean, because that's what I do. Now if you multiply that times 3,000 planes -- you know, this is on 90 planes. In fact, when Prime Minister Abe of Japan came in because they bought a certain number of those, the first thing he said to me, because it was right at the time I did it, he said, "Could I thank you?" I said, "What?" He said, "You saved us $100 million." Because they got a $100 million savings on the 10 or 12 planes that they buy. Nobody wrote that story. Now you know that's a saving of billions and billions of dollars, many billions of dollars over the course of the program. It's between 2,500 and 3,000 planes, will be the final order. But this was only 90 of those 2,500 planes. I'm gonna get more than that.
This was a thing that was out of control and now it's great. And the woman that runs Lockheed, Marillyn, she was great. She's older than I like, but she's kept her figure. Fantastic figure, nothing sagging. Perky tits and pert, bouncy ass. Like she had some work done there. But when you look at her face, it's pretty obvious she hasn't been under the knife. She kept her natural figure, which is amazing at that age and for how much money she has. She said I'm a "smart buyer," a very smart buyer. And she said I was "perfectly appropriate." Let me tell you, I don't get that too often. But all of a sudden it was a different kind of a thing. You know? #MAGA 🇺🇸
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday November 05 2017, @09:06PM (4 children)
Women in defense, with the exception of Bitchin' Betty, [youtube.com] are more evil than men. Not only are they not pretty-looking, but they have something extra to prove. Something that will get us all killed.
Think Dianne Feinstein or Meryl Streep's character in the 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate. Now understand that every woman in power within the military industrial complex is who they are, whether or not they are staff-sergeants or generals.
They want to win at all costs, and I get that. However, the fact that they have an extra point to prove makes them dangerous.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 05 2017, @09:39PM
Take your dick out of your ass, its starting to peak out yer mouth like a xenomorph.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday November 05 2017, @09:51PM (2 children)
Believe me, I don't mind the militaristic folks. Dianne Feinstein, as you know, says I'm "a good president." The best. She has "personal feelings" about me. As do many, many people. There's nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong.
And Marillyn did get my attention. Melania was living in New York at the time. I was in Washington but she was still in New York. Very difficult situation. And Marillyn, let me tell you, below the neck she's great. I was locked and loaded. And I made a great deal with Lockheed. #MAGA 🇺🇸
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 05 2017, @10:48PM (1 child)
>140 chars. sad.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @10:17AM
Trump is just practicing for when that goes live :)