Business
F-35 May Not Fly In Congress (or Boise)
January 18, 2011 
Despite the endorsement of the Boise City Council and Team Dave, it looks like the skies over Boise won’t soon be bothered by F-35 fighter jets. The program is grossly over budget.
Here is a WEBPOST from last Friday detailing the problems. http://spectrum.ieee.org/riskfactor/aerospace/military/us-joint-strike-fighter-f35-hits-afterburners-on-cost-overrun
No word from the State, Feds, or Boise about mixing military fighters and Chinese freighters at Gowen Field, but with enough PR expenditures anything is possible…after all it means JOBS and its great for the economy (somebody has to pay the trillions for defense).
Another link regarding CHINA: http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/18/news/international/thebuzz/index.htm
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Comments & Discussion
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Jan 18, 2011, 11:26 pm
It’s already over the hill now that we know China is building an airplane only about 10 years behind it in technology. We take far far to long to build an airplane these days… we share all the info with Europe who sells it to anyone who wants it. Duh! A great example of our continued decades long leadership failure. These big projects are just a way to suck money into the defense industry. As it is now, the American public has just paid for the development of an aircraft that will be used by about ten other countries at discount prices as part of an aid package so they will promise to be our friends at the UN. The French are much better at this… just send them girls and wine.
Jan 18, 2011, 11:45 pm
Cost overruns have doomed this platform since long before the last discussion about it’s viability last February. Only complete dullards would believe this would happen. OH, wait! That would be the reason why the mayor and city council were so hot for the program!
Jan 19, 2011, 12:34 pm
Everything I have read is this is a Hybrid platform for all the branches of the service and it does nothing to the expectations of each branch.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have proven the value of Predaotor and Raptor technology. Cheap, effective and proven technology.
The F-35 is not something we need in today’s Armed Forces. Even SECDEF Robt. Gates is quesstioning this aircraft and the need to cut back on defense spending for outlandish hardware that will not get used.
Jan 19, 2011, 9:26 pm
Cheap, effective, and proven technology will not prove anything in Afghanistan. Anyone who thinks we will prevail over there is on dope.
We spend billions on failed military adventures on borrowed money.
Like running government like a business? Then accept govenment selling tax funded research to the highest bidder. Both Iraq and Afghanistan are wars being fought for multinational corporate interests. Remember weapons of mass distruction?
Oh, I forgot, all the jobs the defense industry provides….paid for by tax dollars.
Jan 20, 2011, 11:19 am
FRONTLINE this past week exposed all the money spent on surveilance efforts in the USA that have not produced a single thing in the war on terror. It has been alert citizens paying attention and alerting the FBI or other agency of threats.
What we do have is BIG BROTHER looking and listening on otherwise law abiding people. Peace activists are not threats to our security, Catholic Nuns under observation, people exercising their First Amendment rights of free speech are all under surveilance.
The clincher is nobody knows how much all of this is costing taxpayers and no measurement criteria for results achieved. Even the former head of NSA is uncertain about all this spoying on citizens.
Jan 28, 2011, 10:46 am
COST! Heck, we are in the trillions now so what is a couple billion? I bet for a million or three we could incorporate some classes in Mandrin Chinese at BSU. NOW, THAT would provided a job or three. A place of business that could make kites in the image of the F-35 would provide jobs. Ok, so I am using satire to prove what a mess this country is in. Now go have lunch with the legislatures.
Jan 28, 2011, 5:44 pm
The economics of terrorism are amazing. Some guys using $1.50 box cutters hijack planes, kill 3000 innocent people.
US response is two wars on two continents costing trillions, homeland security costing billions, and we only caught a few bad guys but not the real bad guy.
What have we achieved here?
We were told the oil in Iraq would pay for the war and democracy plus rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction.
AFPAK is FUBAR.
The economy is in the tank.
America can’t do math and Sarah Palin says WTF?
Jan 29, 2011, 11:22 am
Bingo! Right-on Dog… The people have been real fools here.
The document leaks are now bringing the house down on the moderate Muslim nations we’ve been proping up too. I think it will spike oil for a while, but if OPEC weakens as a result, it should fall again after the new owners learn to pump oil.
US can’t function on these high oil prices and it’s A primary reason we’re in the dumps.
F-35 project technology is now spread all over the globe… and we paid for it. What would Ike or Truman have done with someone he caught doing something like that? I think the best way to help China’s military now is to feed them slightly wrong technology like the USSR did to them… since we can’t seem to keep stuff to ourselves anymore.