$5B And 700 High Tech Jobs: Reasons Why F-35 Has Friends

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http://breakingdefense.com/2015/06/5b-and-700-high-tech-jobs-reasons-why-f-35-has-friends/



$5B And 700 High Tech Jobs: Reasons Why F-35 Has Friends
By Colin Clark
on June 16, 2015 at 10:14 AM

PARIS AIR SHOW: Critics of the F-35 have long wondered why friends and allies have stuck with the program. It can’t be, they argue, because of the aircraft’s capabilities. It is, they say, years behind schedule, billions over budget and won’t be able to deliver all its weapons for years.

Ah, grasshopper, but there are other reasons — aside from the fact the critics are suffering from the time lag, since the program’s fixed many of the problems raised by those incredibly careful Government Accountability Office audits and the efforts of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation.

Some $5 billion of those reasons were on display yesterday when the Danish company Terma and Lockheed Martin signed an MOU giving Terma, Denmark’s defense company, a whole lot of business should a new Danish government approve purchase of the F-35.

Terma signed a long-term agreement with Lockheed Martin two years ago for manufacture of composite and bonded assembly parts for the three variants of the F-35. It has also signed agreements for other F-35 work with Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, General Dynamics, and Marvin Engineering.