F-35 Fighter made with Communist Chinese parts

The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff in Action
(AP File Photo)

"Ah! the Generals! They are numerous,

but not good for much!"

Aristophanes

(446 BC – ca. 386 BC)

Idiot Alert  -  Every morning I get up, look in the mirror and wonder if I am the only sane person left in this fucking country.  Now we have the morons in the Pentagon and the Obama regime ordering parts for our fighter jets from Communist China.

The Pentagon repeatedly waived laws banning Communist Chinese-built components on U.S. weapons in order to keep the $392 billion Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter program on track in 2012 and 2013, even as U.S. officials were voicing concern about China's espionage and military buildup.

According to Pentagon documents reviewed by Reuters, chief U.S. arms buyer Frank Kendall allowed two F-35 suppliers, Northrop Grumman Corp and Honeywell International Inc, to use Chinese magnets for the new warplane's radar system, landing gears and other hardware.

Without the waivers, both companies could have faced sanctions for violating federal law and the F-35 program could have faced further delays reports Reuters News.

"It was a pretty big deal and an unusual situation because there's a prohibition on doing defense work in China, even if it's inadvertent," said Frank Kenlon, who recently retired as a senior Pentagon procurement official and now teaches at American University. "I'd never seen this happen before."

The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, is examining three such cases involving the F-35, the U.S. military's next generation fighter, the documents show.

The waivers were needed to keep production, testing and training of the Pentagon's newest warplane on track; avert millions of dollars in retrofit costs; and prevent delays in the Marine Corps' plan to start using the jets in combat from mid-2015, according to the documents. In one case, it would cost $10.8 million and take about 25,000 man-hours to remove the Chinese-made magnets and replace them with American ones, the documents indicate.

Lockheed is developing the F-35, the Pentagon's costliest arms program, for the United States and eight countries that helped fund its development: Britain, Canada, Australia, Italy, Norway, Turkey, Denmark and the Netherlands. Israel and Japan have also placed orders for the jet.

The program is already years behind schedule and 70 percent over initial cost estimates. At the time Kendall was granting the waivers, officials were acutely worried that further delays and cost increases would erode the foreign orders needed to drive down the future cost of each warplane.

Happy Communist Workers
Enthusiastic workers making parts for an American fighter jet.  I mean really, what could possibly go wrong? 
.
Thank God the Pentagon is staffed with the "Best and the Brightest" people our military academies could produce.  Just imagine if our military was run by idiots?

The F-35.  Made with Communist Chinese parts.