Gates–currently the most dangerous man to the future of U.S. air power–is trying to claim victory on the recent low-rate initial production batch 4 (LRIP 4) contract yet he can’t state detailed numbers.
An example of the savings of this new approach — this new approach is delivering is the contract for the fourth lot of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. After extensive negotiations, the department has reached an agreement to use a fixed-price incentive fee contract for the purchase of 30 F-35s for the U.S. military.
This type of contract shares the cost of overruns between the government and industry up to a fixed ceiling. It also shares the rewards when the programs come in under cost. The per-unit price we’ve negotiated for this new contract is 15 to 20 percent below the independent cost estimate for the F-35 prepared earlier this year.
The contract as structured will enhance the productivity of the Joint Strike Fighter program to reduce overall costs. The department will continue to closely monitor and aggressively manage this important program.
As part of the guidance issued to our industry partners and defense contracting professionals last week, I made it clear that we need to see more of these types of contracts in order to provide more value and better programs for the American taxpayer and provide good business opportunities for our industrial partners.
“15 to 20 percent” is a pretty general statement. For this kind of money one should expect more details as this is not a small amount of money.
The myth of the great usefulness of Gates in this job continues. I’ll wait for the actual approved budgets to come out to see where we are at with the Joint Strike Failure.
As I predicted, Gates and his merry band of air power MORONS will proclaim what a great deal they’ve made, while ignoring the elephant in the room, that the plane is years late and hundreds of billions of dollars over budget to date. Never mind that it can’t hold a candle to already existing fighters in A2A mode (that PAK-FA thing, how inconvenient).
As Eric has pointed out, notice the obvious we’re not going to talk numbers approach (15-20% below projected cost, LOL).
Its just another day at the office for the Joint PowerPoint Fighter…..
Gates is certainly the master of vague talk, yet still short of Lockmart BS mastery. This whole Lockheed-Gates alleged fight is like good cop – bad cop approach. They seem to be fighting, but actually they work in consort. Gates has put all eggs into F-35 basket, silenced his opponents by any means possible and now he has to hold tight and hope nobody opens the closet to let all those skeletons out. LM is trying to kill both Boeing and Europe as viable competitiors by starving them to death by taking all available money for “fighter” development. But somehow, Russia, PRC, and potentially South Korea and Japan do not want to understand and follow this brilliant plan. Perhaps not evil enough, Scott…(sorry, Robert):-))). Again, one Fighter to find them all…and in darkness bind them:-(
Again, well spoken Firefox! How fitting it is that the latest PA for the JSF came from Gitmo. Because that’s exactly where fighter development has been, locked up by Gates and Lockmart in a non-funded cell.
Yes, I’m hoping Japan will not fall under the F-35 spell, and will develop the Mitsubishi ATD-X perhaps with other nations support. I’m also waiting for the Chinese to reveal their 5th generation fighter in the near future. The Indian/Russian joint development for the T-50/PAK-FA/HAL FGFA seems to be strong at this point, and perhaps with Gates leaving in the future, the other US aerospace firms will be allowed to develop something other then the Joint PowerPoint Fighter (go Boeing).