‘Sound of freedom’ is the sound of F-35 mismanagement

Independent Newsmedia

OPINION — The “sound of freedom” has become a rather trite phrase. No, I am not complaining about the noise, nor am I complaining about Luke Air Force Base.

I figured it was time to put some costs to our trite phrase. The F-35 program is now $200 billion in cost overruns. Just remember, your tax dollars, your children and grandchildren are going to end up paying for this nonsense.

Just a quick math comment. It takes a thousand million to make a billion.  

The software upgrades are reported to be years behind schedule. Not one F-35 variant has met its mission requirement goals. This jet is now 85% over budget. Only 55% of the aircraft are mission available. Key issues are slow repair times, lack of spare parts and a shortage of technical data and training.  

Every time we hear these planes take off from Luke, they cost taxpayers $30,000 to $40,000 just to fly for one hour.

So next time you hear the “sound of freedom,” just remember the people we put in charge of this program are not doing a very good job and we keep letting our military production companies charge us whatever they want and our government bends over and pays this crazy price.  

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