"The Plane that Ate The Pentagon- The Politically Engineered F-35"

The F-35A at Eglin Air Force Base -"Vanity Fair"

"THE PROJECT ON GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT (POGO)"

 The Over Budget and Behind Schedule F-35

"In "Vanity Fair", Adam Ciralsky investigates the F-35 aircraft, or Joint Strike Fighter, that was meant to streamline and update the military’s fleet of planes. When Ciralsky first saw the jet he said he “didn’t know whether to genuflect or spit.”

The plane offers hopes of a futuristic military combat system with technologies far superior to what we have now. But it’s also seven years behind schedule and millions of dollars over budget. When first conceived in 2001, each F-35 was supposed to cost $81 million. In his piece POGO’s Winslow Wheeler puts the true cost of the airplane at $219 million or more per copy:

 The Jet That Ate the Pentagon”

So what went wrong? In 2001, Lockheed Martin won a valuable government contract worth an estimated $233 billion to create the plane. Instead of testing the plane’s various aspects before production, Lockheed Martin decided to use a practice called concurrency–producing and testing the plane at the same time.

As of now, the planes can’t drop bombs and have only 2% of the necessary coding to be used in combat. During testing, pilots have ended up abandoning their futuristic helmets mid-flight due to the confusion they cause. The planes also can’t fly in inclement weather, something a  $60,000 Cessna can do.

Another basic question: why hasn’t the government stepped in to keep Lockheed Martin on track? Ciralsky believes it’s due to an expensive and brilliantly conceived manipulation of our political system.

The political process that keeps the Joint Strike Fighter airborne has never stalled. The program was designed to spread money so far and so wide—at last count, among some 1,400 separate subcontractors, strategically dispersed among key congressional districts—that no matter how many cost overruns, blown deadlines, or serious design flaws, it would be immune to termination. It was, as bureaucrats say, “politically engineered.

 POGO has reported on the problematic F-35 in the past. Recommendations include cancelling the more expensive and problematic variants of the F-35 and replacing them with proven, less expensive systems. Wheeler, though, believes the project should be abandoned all together. He wrote in Foreign Policy, “There is only one thing to do with the F-35: Junk it. America’s air forces deserve a much better aircraft, and the taxpayers deserve a much cheaper one. The dustbin awaits.”

Read the rest of the article in Vanity Fair to see how just how bad the F-35 program has become."

Remembering Veteran Bob Niederkorn - Father, Fisherman and Friend

PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

William (Bob) Niederkorn died peacefully in his home at 96 years of age on 12 August 2013.

I first met Bob on the shore of Lake Rebecca near Hastings, Minnesota in 2006.   He was perched on a small stool catching sunfish, that I later learned he carefully cleaned on a glass-topped coffee table in his garage, then cooked for his lady friend Myra, who is pictured above with Bob.  Myra passed away a couple years ago. 

I fished with Bob for the next 5 years, until his health became too frail to make it to the lake he had frequented for well over 70 years. 

I learned Bob was a decorated combat veteran of WW II and the Korean War, who had been shot down twice over Europe flying B-17's. Bob and I often discussed our combat experiences, he in his era and I in mine.  He was a big help in my recovery from PTSD.

After his service abroad,  Bob returned to Hastings where he was a fixture at the Hastings Country Club, managing the facility for many years while also establishing a musical instrument retail store and a couple restaurants in the area.

I brought some Veteran friends who were golf enthusiasts by Bob's garage at his invitation, where he would wander down a line of equipment he had accumulated over the years, filling up a bag with clubs, balls and other tools for the links, then handing it to each vet as a gift, or for a pittance if the man felt he had to pay. 

Bob was a self-effacing man who liked a laugh and a good story;  he had many to tell, with his roles in business and social settings as well as foreign travel and wars.   I met several local, prominent people through Bob, which contributed to my feel for the community.  I admired his easy, friendly demeanor with everyone. 

Bob often asked me to accompany he and Myra to the local casino for dinner.  I noted he had the same look on his face when he was playing the slots as he did when he was fishing - always waiting for that big one. I met Bob's two adopted daughters, and many of his extended family in the area and in Canada.

Bob Niederkorn was a genuine, generous individual who served his country, his community and his friends from his heart. 

We will miss him at Lake Rebecca,

Rest in Peace, Bob,

Ken 

http://about.me/smalltofeds

Sequestration from the Top Down or From the Bottom Up?

Sequestration requires across-the-board cuts of $85 billion — $43 billion for the Defense Department, $29 billion for non defense agencies and $13 billion for Medicare and other social programs — by Sept. 30. Defense reductions will affect about two-thirds of the Pentagon's $648 billion 2013 budget. Military personnel accounts are protected.

The uncertainty has lasted for weeks and months, as agencies, technically, do not have to make the required cuts until  September 30,2013.  Although the longer they wait, the more pronounced the cuts will have to be toward the end of the fiscal year.

Assuming the major weapons systems battles will be fought and the smoke will clear by default on those that are not affordable, the next largest target in the agency cuts will be manpower -- military, civil service and contractors. 

From what we are reading, the major issue is whether or not the cuts will occur at the top of the hierarchy where the brass (corporate big boys, civil servants the generals/admirals) sit or from the bottom – enlisted men and their benefits and small business.  

Below are 3 different perspectives on this issue for your reading enjoyment, courtesy of our stymied Congress whose budgetary laziness has created the Sequestration Drama. We suggest you choose the one you favor and advise your congressman of your choice. 

THE PROJECT ON GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT ("POGO")

".............for the first time in the more than 200 years that the U.S. has had a standing military, there are fewer than five enlisted personnel for every officer. In other words, today’s military is the most top-heavy  force in U.S. history.

Former Secretary of Defense Gates remarks on this issue per POGO:

"In  his August 2010 speech on Efficiency Initiatives, Gates referred to  these perks as “the overhead and accoutrements that go with” senior  positions, be they military or civilian, within DoD. In an interview  with Newsweek, Gates bemoaned these accoutrements and entourages that  surround generals and admirals, which he believes are indicative of a  military leadership that is “suffering from an inflated sense of  entitlement and a distorted sense of priorities"

http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2011/11/todays-military-the-most-top-heavy-force-in-us-history.html

"DOD BUZZ"

"The head of the U.S. Defense Department vowed to cut 20 percent of some areas of the military bureaucracy in a move estimated to save as much as $2 billion.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel made  the announcement while speaking to troops during a trip to Naval Air  Station Jacksonville, Fla.

Pentagon Press Secretary George Little  in a statement e-mailed later in the day said the reductions would  affect the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff and the  Military Service Headquarters over a five-year period beginning in 2015.  They will occur whether or not lawmakers agree on a plan to avoid  automatic budget cuts known as sequestration, he said.
 
“These headquarters reductions should be pursued now,  regardless of future fiscal circumstances,” Little said. “These cuts  will be implemented even if Congress lifts sequester-level budget caps.”

Little didn’t specify how many personnel would be affected. The move may eliminate more than 4,000 jobs, according to an unofficial headcount of those areas. That’s less than one-fifth of 1 percent of the Pentagon’s 2.1 million active-duty troops and civilian employees.

What’s more, the Pentagon bureaucracy has only increased since 2010, when  former Defense Secretary Bob Gates made a similar pledge, raising  questions about whether Hagel — or any defense secretary — can succeed  in thinning the ranks of the military’s top-brass and senior civilians.

The number of positions in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the  Joint Staff and the combatant commands increased 24 percent, to 21,952  in 2012 from 17,765 in 2010, according to a graphic accompanying a  recent analysis by Marcus Weisgerber, a reporter for Defense News.

More than half of the overall increase came from the Joint Staff, which  simply absorbed positions from Joint Forces Command after Gates ordered  the latter to be shuttered in 2010, according to the analysis.

Hagel’s announcement is based on a strategic review of spending priorities in  the wake of across-the-board budget reductions, Little said.

http://www.dodbuzz.com/2013/07/17/like-predecessors-hagel-vows-to-cut-military-fat/

The Defense Department faces $500 billion in automatic cuts over the next decade."

"WASHINGTON TECHNOLOGY"

"The Small Business Administration reported that the federal government again missed the mark for small business contracting during  fiscal 2012, but the gap has narrowed for primes.

Overall, $89.9 billion in government contracts went to small businesses last year, that’s 22.25 percent of all contracts, according to the SBA report. The goal for small businesses is 23 percent. In fiscal 2011, 21.65 percent of contracts went to small businesses.

There also are goals for various sub-categories of small businesses:

• Women-owned: 4 percent or $16.2 billion (goal 4 percent)
• Small disadvantaged: 8 percent or $32.3 billion (goal 5 percent)
• Service disabled, veteran-owned: 3.03 percent or $12.3 billion (goal 3 percent)
• HUBZone: 2.01 percent or $8.1 billion (goal 3 percent)

The annual SBA report also tracks small business contracting goals. The gap between goal and achievement is greater there.

Overall, 33.6 percent of subcontracts went to small businesses, with  the goal being 36 percent; however, women-owned small businesses  surpassed their 5 percent goal with 5.6 percent achieved. Small disadvantaged businesses also were over their 5 percent goal with 5.1  percent.

But service-disabled, veteran-owned businesses fell short with 1.8  percent versus a goal of 3 percent, as did HUBZone, which had 1.3  percent of subcontracts against a goal of 3 percent.

SBA’s annual release of its small business goals isn’t without critics. The American Small Business League criticized the report saying it was “completely false and totally unsupported by the facts.”

The group claims that SBA miscalculated the actual federal  acquisition budget, and according to ASBL, small businesses only  received 8.2 percent of prime contracts.

In addition, the group claims that a significant number of large businesses are receiving small business contracts."

"WHEN WILL THE CONTRACTORS CONTRACT?

How the Pentagon Floats to the Tax Payer the Massive, Tiered, Overheads of Major Corporations in the Military Industrial Complex

 Chuck Spinney Photo Courtesy of Bill Moyers Interviews at "Now" on PBS http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_spinney.html 

The following article is an outstanding guest blog by Chuck Spinney  on the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) a venerable Washington D.C. Non-Profit that has been around since they first assisted in bringing attention to $640 toilet seats and $436 hammers of the 1980s.

Spinney spent 33 years at the Department of Defense including 26 years as a staff analyst, has testified before congress and won many awards for his straight forward critique of the Pentagon.

Rather than blowing whistles on classified data, Chuck has been respected for years for his straight-forward views and recommendations on how the Pentagon, our biggest government agency, has been managed.   This is a man who has been there.

As Spinney points out the reasons for the astounding costs at the Pentagon are the  same today - "It is all about allocating overhead spending by contractors in an  unaccountable financial system"

Below is an extract from Chuck's article and a link to it at POGO:

POGO

 "The fact that the Pentagon does not have an in-house capability to do  audits is a reflection of its own priorities of delay and obfuscation.  The Pentagon does not have a capability to make sense out of accounting  systems after 20-plus years of failing to meet its legal obligations,  because it has not assigned a high enough priority to the problem. Punt  bluntly, the Pentagon does not want to have that capability.

 The reason the Pentagon does not want auditable books is simple: the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex benefits  from the money flows hidden in the perpetual chaos of the bookkeeping shambles. "

 

http://www.pogo.org/blog/2013/06/when-will-the-contractors-contract.html