ça faisait longtemps, B Sweetman repart de plus belle
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/defense/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&newspaperUserId=27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7&plckPostId=Blog%3a27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post%3a00f478ec-841d-4f77-89bb-05c688c39742&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest
et dans la partie commentaire:
Propaganda - which is what Lexington is doing - has to be countered.
This is perhaps the most egregious example, but in the past few days Thompson and Goure have been on the offensive against any reform that might reduce defense contractors' revenues, promoting the idea that affordability is a "religion" (Goure) or that the idea of downsizing the number of missile tubes on SSBN-X, or assessing its stealth against the real threat, is "extremely dangerous" (Thompson, in Forbes).
As regards the last point, how many Forbes readers know that the US Navy seldom if ever loads its Trident D5 missiles to their full eight-warhead capability today? Not many. How many will realize that, while the future is uncertain, one item you can take to the bank is that, in the next century, it is hardly likely that the SSBNs will face a threat equal to the 1970s CIA projection of what the Soviets might posed in the Ohio boats' lifetime?
As for JSF overruns, Thompson blames them on the customer, saying that the government "has burdened the F-35 with lengthy delays, superfluous flight tests, and specious cost assessments". Never a mention of the initial F-35B design that was almost two tons overweight, or the fact that half the test jets were between eight and 15 months late.
This sort of thing cannot do good, and the question is how much harm it caused. As I mused here a few months ago:
"Another question, for application to future programs, is whether the optimistic rhetoric for outside consumption - endemic on almost any program on this scale, it has to be admitted - reached the point where it interfered with leadership's ability to diagnose problems and take corrective action."