1. Well at least "To big to fail" might have worked for the banks in 2008 (And that might not happen again-the bailout.) but in the area of defence the highway is littered with programs that have such as the EFV, U.S. SLAMRAAM (Development phase completed, to avoid program termination penalties.) and the most expensive yet MEADS (Funded to FY13 to complete developmental phase to avoid 100's of millions of dollars in program termination fees itself.) The F-35 AGAIN finds itself in the spot light for all the wrong reasons this past week due to cost overruns, program delays, per unit costs that have almost more than doubled and as part of the GAO report that cited the maintenance costs are going to be much higher then expected. All this has already been posted here in the last few weeks. It is NOT a good idea to have one of the most powerful Senators and supporter of the military call your program into question especially during these fiscal times. And if your Lockheed Martin I'd be very concerned over the amount of funding has all of a sudden gone into the F-22 and the fact that several of your potential customers for the F-35 have openly stated they would rather buy the F-22 over your plane. It kind of has to make you really think of why we won't sell an export version of the F-22 but we'll do so with the F-35. Makes you wonder which is really the better fighter doesn't it? But then I've already posted that here as well from one of the most respected aviation think tanks in the world with their analysis of the jets in question and a couple of others. You can pull up the full GAO report at the bottom of the first ref. Again with DEFPRO sources are listed in the upper upper right corner.
http://www.defpro.com/news/details/24686/
http://www.defpro.com/news/details/24736/
http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/jsf/
A. The F-22 picture, though not always a pretty one either, it's advantage it's already here and we're committed to it.
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/...updated-02908/
http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/f22/
B. See
Post #9 last item on bottom for PAK-FA, F-22 and F-35 combat analisis both are good reading, again AUSA is a highly respected avaition think tank.
2. India buys some new bombs, and my answer to the question I think will be a deciding factor in the MMRCA competition.
Of note this is a standard weapon already carried by the B-52H,
B-1B and B-2 bombers.
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/...hup-***-05100/
Regards,
Pat