F-35 — a case study in deficient decision-making: Olive

http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1307937--f-35-a-case-study-in-deficient-decision-making-olive



F-35 — a case study in deficient decision-making: Olive
By David Olive
Published on Friday December 28, 2012

The F-35 fighter plane is shaping up as the biggest fiasco in the history of military aviation. If anything’s to be gained from the monumental botch that is the costliest and most multi-functional military aircraft project ever attempted, the Joint Strike Fighter program from which the F-35 is derived should be taught at the Royal Military College and its peers worldwide. It is an epic case history of supplier over-reach on the part of defence contractors, and deficient decision-making by public policy makers.

One concedes, off the top, that progress is difficult in everything from social programs to technological breakthroughs. That said, Canada should never have embraced the hyper-ambitious F-35 project. Neither should the Pentagon, which wisely dropped out of a supersonic passenger-aircraft race in 1971 (the stillborn SST). The Anglo-French Concorde was a commercial failure the entirety of its existence despite having the skies to itself.

After interminable delays and massive cost-overruns with the F-35, Ottawa finally indicated this month it will rethink its plan to purchase of 65 F-35s meant to replace our aging CF-18s. The Pentagon, it turns out, is having second thoughts about the F-35 as well, despite having its own crisis with aging F-15s and F-16s, the backbone of U.S. military air power.

It’s worth noting here the self-inflicted damage Ottawa’s years-long commitment to the F-35 has done to Canada.