GAO F-35 Report: It's bad.
The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its report on the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter earlier this week, and the results were fairly predictable to anyone who has been paying attention to the program in the last few years. The report can be found here. The general gist of it? The F-35 is going to be late, and it's going to take a lot more money. The very first page states, in big letters: Problems Completing Software Testing May Hinder Delivery of Expected Warfighting Capabilities It's not all bad, however. The report actually praises the "flight sciences" aspect of testing, meaning that the aircraft is meeting most of the goals associated with hardware, like taking off, flying, dropping bombs, and landing. The program accomplished nearly all of the flight sciences testing, including weapons testing, it had planned for 2013. Progress has been made on the troublesome tail hook, ...