gdp's Comments

DoD Buzz : Air Force Hopes to Buy 80 to 100 Next Gen Bombers

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 20:07:41 +0000

Operative word in the title- "hopes".

Defense Tech : Spectres and Warthogs Join Libyan Fight

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 09:25:09 +0000

Might require some checking but I don't think they use DU with the A-10 anymore.

DoD Buzz : Noon = Doom for GE's F136; GE Strikes Back

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 21:12:27 +0000

Hows that F-35 cheer-leading campaign sferrin?

DoD Buzz : Noon = Doom for GE's F136; GE Strikes Back

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 21:11:39 +0000

frequency and redundancy, you mean like Lockheed Martin talking points?

DoD Buzz : Noon = Doom for GE's F136; GE Strikes Back

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 21:10:35 +0000

Not much of an argument when the F-35 won't stand up to advanced threats and won't be affordable.

DoD Buzz : Noon = Doom for GE's F136; GE Strikes Back

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 22:38:51 +0000

Who wants to fund a second engine vendor for a jet program that will be lucky to see a few hundred mistake-jets made before it is canceled? And as Weaponhead stated before, the silence on funding $50B for hundreds of F-35 LRIP mistake-jets is deafening. In other news, the rest of the F-35s are allowed to test again. They say it was an MX fault and too much oiling and well everything is rosy. Yet, Flight Global pulled that article. Why?

Defense Tech : Growlers Over Libya -- An Update

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 20:46:48 +0000

When the next gen jammer program didn't pan out at the time, the Navy went with legacy jamming equipment to put on this aircraft. That is after they made up briefs stating that the equipment on it today (mostly from the EA-6) was too hard to maintain and wouldn't stand up to emerging threats. Well, they had to put something on deck. The fact that this aircraft is out there vs. a very poorly maintained legacy Soviet era SAM system isn't a big deal. "Not much Grrrrrr! for the Growler" http://is.gd/kioIDV

DoD Buzz : Navy, Marines Commit to STOVL JSF

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 11:05:40 +0000

There is a difference between doing a contract selection based on engine performance and price and the Saudi experience of poor maintenance, where a Saudi prince stated- I didn't buy my F-15s to fly them like an F-5; in reference to some burn wear on engines in MRO where the response from PW was to dial down the throttle.

DoD Buzz : Navy, Marines Commit to STOVL JSF

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 08:43:07 +0000

That is an interesting theory. Funny how the Saudis had the PWs in their F-15s removed and had them replaced by GEs over a bad customer service issue.

DoD Buzz : In Praise of Tac Air, Bombers

Mon, 7 Mar 2011 10:47:05 +0000

Nameless internet trolls unite.

DoD Buzz : GOP Warns of Tough Oversight; Skelton Gone

Wed, 3 Nov 2010 20:49:57 +0000

And just think. There was a time when Skelton was a republican.

DoD Buzz : GE Finds F136 Failure Cause

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 23:28:14 +0000

Kill the F136 UK drops out of F-35 program along with other shaky JSF partner nations USAF buys a few hundred mistake-jets. USMC a handful, Navy has other things to spend money on and drops out. F-35 program stops DOD can move on with spending money on something that makes sense instead of this loss-leader.

Macleans.ca : Joint Strike Fighter costs are soaring

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 13:52:38 +0000

Um.... no. Like anyone being sold a Ponzi Scheme like this, you better look again. All F-35 JSF partner nations have to sign up to a certain quantity or there won't be that nice price. Important because no one knows what it will actually cost to operate and sustain this aircraft. Other partner nations like Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands are starting to wake up. The U.K. MOD is in the tank and will never see their proposed numbers if-any. Little details like this are important because only around 3-4 percent of the flight test program is done. Then there is the whole issue of what the heck are you buying? The jet as delivered will be obsolete against modern threats over its supposed service life. So, by focusing on the fantasy unit cost of a flying question mark, the seller of the aircraft still has most of the gullible customers confused. And that is probably the way they want to lead the sheep to the slaughter.

DoD Buzz : DoD Must Share The Pain

Thu, 7 Oct 2010 12:34:12 +0000

Of course the DOD would have a lot more credibility if they didn't do stupid things like the Littoral Combat Gyp, FCS, F-35, DDX and taking 10 years (or more) to procure an air refueling tanker.

Defense Tech : DoD's 2010 Report on China's PLA Modernization (IV)

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 22:32:20 +0000

"monopoly" == Really? We have been burning up cash on Operations: USELESS DIRT 1 and 2 and robbing war ready stores from the Pacific to send to those theaters. Better reconsider the concept of hollow force. It takes one sub to send off a signal and or even maintain a track cross referenced with over-the-horizon radar. The Chinese have both of those.

DoD Buzz : The Great Engine War Is Over

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:21:01 +0000

Which could actually mean something if the F-4 had an MOU that stated that the customer could choose engine types.

DoD Buzz : No JSFs Flying To Farnborough

Thu, 8 Jul 2010 22:19:39 +0000

"where hundreds are sold to other countries" Someone better tell the program that. Up to 700 jets for the 8 foreign JSF team partners are the wiggle-room in profit in the business plan. Then there is the hype by the program that 4,000+ aircraft will be made. I think the guy that got fired a while back even mentioned 6000 . (snort, guffaw) http://tinyurl.com/2dlqblu "But General David Heinz, the head of the JSF program, added that "if you look at the number of aircraft to be replaced ... you could easily get to 6,000." Sad when the guy that is supposed to be an impartial representative of the taxpayer as a DOD program manager for a major high-risk weapons procurement program--goes native.

DoD Buzz : McChrystal: Going Or Chastened?

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 11:43:30 +0000

Nothing to take back. Offended? You should be offended by the Army leadership. Tillman did his part for his country. There is no doubt about that. But it wasn't a Silver Star event. Incompetence by his team mates got him killed. This unfortunately happens in war. What is the most despicable is the way that Army leadership and thus DOD leadership tried to make it sound like he died in enemy action when there was no doubt of how he died within minutes of the event. For McChrystal et al to sign off on that Silver Star with words of enemy action in the citation should have gotten a lot of people fired. And yet McChrystal and crew got a pass.

DoD Buzz : Pass Supp Or Gates Does 'Stupid' Things

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 03:02:52 +0000

Other "stupid things"? Try this.... " ...about $77 million per copy." -Robert Gates, U.S. Secretary of Defense, Feb. 2008. (commenting on the F-35) snort-guffaw

DoD Buzz : Surprise Pick For Commandant

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 03:15:26 +0000

Ask him how USMC can do IOC for the F-35 when there has been more years and more cost stacked up on this program. Ask him how you get 7 tons of gas for every sortie of the F-35 to "austere" bases. Ask him how many F-35s will be available for the Corps with the rising amount of cost. Answer; not as many. Ask him when the F-35 will be shipboard qualified. Ask him why the USMC brain book shows an FOC for the F-35 of 2024. Ask him how IOC can be done when operational test pilots won't even have the basic flight manual of the jet to use that shows the flight envelope limits of the jet done by the first testers that compose this information for the operational testers. How do you develope combat tactics in Operational Test when the jet is no where near finished? But hey, I am sure he has a reasonable answer for all of this. Including; Ask him why General Heinz was for the alternate engine. Important because this is written into the F-35 JSF Memorandum of Agreement. Then if you dare, ask him how much hype he is willing to push on the F-35 program when General Heinz took the fall for all of the overly optimistic praise.