Our Wasteful Defense Establishment
By David Williams
July 20, 2021 6:30 AM
U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning IIs from the 388th and 419th Fighter Wings conduct a combat-power exercise at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, January 6, 2020. (R. Nial Bradshaw/USAF)
American servicemembers’ lives are threatened by Pentagon boondoggles.
America’s top-of-the-line fighter jet might not be able to break the speed of sound or fire its own cannon, but its ability to score lucrative contracts for its manufacturer remains as impressive as ever. Last month Lockheed Martin won a nearly $500 million contract to develop new weapons for the troubled F-35 fighter. And earlier this month, Lockheed Martin was awarded a $1.8 billion contract to perform maintenance work and manage logistics for the F-35 program.
The issues plaguing the F-35 fighter, its development, and its entry into service have received extensive coverage from policy analysts and government watchdog organizations, most recently from a Government Accountability Office report that said: “Since 2012, F-35 estimated sustainment costs over its 66-year life cycle have increased steadily, from $1.11 trillion to $1.27 trillion, despite efforts to reduce costs. The services will collectively be confronted with tens of billions of dollars in sustainment costs that they project as unaffordable during the program.”
And the F-35 is far from the only defense program suffering from cost overruns and lack of a clear purpose. Bloated, ineffective programs are a symptom of the misplaced priorities, poor decision-making, and lack of vision plaguing the American defense establishment. The burden on taxpayers and servicemembers alone should be enough to warrant serious scrutiny of the practices that have enabled such bad management for so long. But wasteful defense programs and poor military strategy don’t just cost taxpayer dollars. They can cost American servicemembers’ lives.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/07/our-wasteful-defense-establishment/#slide-1
