DOT&E Releases Analysis and It Isn’t Pretty

President Trump called the F-35 “fantastic.” It appears he didn’t read the latest brutally honest report from the Pentagon’s testing office. POGO wades through the complicated language of the report to show there are still many unresolved problems with the program.

The F-35 still has a long way to go before it will be ready for combat. That was the parting message of Dr. Michael Gilmore, the now-retired Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, in his last annual report. The Joint Strike Fighter Program has already consumed more than $100 billion and nearly 25 years. Just to finish the basic development phase will require at least an extra $1 billion and two more years. Even with this massive investment of time and money, Dr. Gilmore told Congress, the Pentagon, and the public, “the operational suitability of all variants continues to be less than desired by the Services." What will it take to fix the numerous problems identified by Dr. Gilmore, and how do we best move forward with the most expensive weapon program in history, a program that has been unable to live up to its own very modest promises?

POGO Report: http://www.pogo.org/straus/issues/weapons/2017/f35-continues-to-stumble.html

2016 DOT&E Report on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter:https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3262653-FY-2017-DOT-amp-E-JSF-Report.html

Music: "Without Limits" Ross Bugden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhIeTzW9iWw