Lockheed Balks at Paying Back $183 Million for Botched F-35 Spare Parts Program

[rangerrebew]

Lockheed Balks at Paying Back $183 Million for Botched F-35 Spare Parts Program
 
23 Jul 2020
Military.com | By Richard Sisk

A top Lockheed Martin executive sidestepped questions Wednesday on whether the aerospace firm would pay back $183 million to the government for failures in supplying spare parts for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.

Citing government watchdog agency reports, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York, charged that air crews incurred $183 million in labor costs devising workarounds to track and ensure the reliability of spare parts for the F-35.

"This is unacceptable," Maloney told Greg Ulmer, Lockheed's vice president and general manager of the F-35 Lightning II program, at a hearing of the House Oversight and Reform Committee.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/07/23/lockheed-balks-paying-back-183-million-botched-f-35-spare-parts-program.html

[SZonian]

Doesn't surprise in the least.

The JSF Program is inept because it's "managed" by execs out of FW and Bethesda who are in over their heads.  They're stat chasers and chart monkeys.

Hell, they damned near managed to totally screw up the flight test efforts. 

Flight test only succeeded through a combination of blind luck and the determination of the people "in the trenches".

Developing "work arounds" has become commonplace within the program...it's about the only way some things get done anymore because of the onerous, ineffective and egoistic management + the abject stupidity of many who are in "charge".

"Leadership" is non-existent...most are only working to ensure their advancement within the corporate ranks.