It appears that he's declined.
With that in mind I decided to pen a letter to both offices. Below is a copy of what I sent them.
Gentlemen,Quite honestly, in the realm of the defense blogosphere, I'm a guppy. I've experience tremendous growth over the last year (THANKS GUYS!) but to be honest BLACKFIVE or Information Dissemination would probably get a reply...me...not so sure. But we'll see.
I'm sure its come to your attention that Bill Sweetman, Editor in Chief of Defense Technology International and a renowned Aviation Writer, has penned several articles critical of the F-35.
Many supporters of this program have sat back in amazement at the lack of response to many of his assertions. The only rebuttal to his claims (to my knowledge) came from former Chief Test Pilot Jon Beasely during an interview that made its way onto YouTube.
His latest claims however, demand a statement from your offices and I would gladly welcome one either at my website or even better through Aviation Week's Blog - ARES.
In this case.
On this issue.
Silence is not golden.
Very Respectfully,
Solomon.
Good luck! I hope you get a response. I'd bet good money that whatever they said would just be dismissed by those at Ares as "more Lockheed Martin lies". Like I said, they don't appear to be interested in anything but the death of the F-35 program.
ReplyDelete-sferrin
well said. i've gotten like 3 comments from Horde (or one of his acolytes) that i've had to remove cause as usual he's acting an ass.
ReplyDeletei don't expect them to answer here but i'd sure love for Sean Meade to get a phone call from John Kent (PAO at LM) asking for a telephonic interview with one of his engineers!
Isn't "Horde" Carlo Kopp?
ReplyDelete-sferrin
no Kopp is keeping it clean (or at least he gives the impression of it)...the guy is a part of APA but he is also a respected writer in Australia and his writing can be seen in several Australian Defense Publications.
ReplyDeletei don't think he even posts on ARES...he might under the name Perplexed or some other name but Goon uses so many its hard to tell.
^----Must be another one of Bill's buddies. Real class act there.
ReplyDelete-sferrin
this little post must have sparked a flurry of e-mails between the interested parties...i've deleted 8 or 9 of his posts.
ReplyDeleteIt'd be interesting to know who it is who's so uptight, even if it's just their username. Funny how they seem to be embarrased to put their name to their comments.
ReplyDeletei'm not surprised. i think the goal is to simply muddy the waters here to push people away from the blog. the more name calling he/they can get involved in the less seriously they can take my thoughts...
ReplyDeletedon't get me wrong...i do this purely for entertainment purposes...i'm not trying to play think tank but i'm interested in these issues.
but like i said earlier. for some bullets and bombs aren't life and death...but this program sure is!
Solomon what I really have trouble wrapping my noodle around is all the attention being paid to what is happening on what is basically shake down flights. I mean isn't that the purpose of the testing? Find out what might happen and then how to fix it or make it so that in the future pilots will have something to fall back on.
ReplyDeleteI was a Marine plane captain back in the early 80's and at that time the Harrier was going through it's and the JSF has had no where near the problems that bird did getting qualified. My two cents worth. Great site btw
Horde is Peter Goon. He uses the same handle on ELP's blog and indeed his actual photo taken from the APA webpage.
ReplyDeleteGoon (Horde) also posts on Ares and elsewhere as DamaclesIam (yes, spelt incorrectly and all) as he inadvertently revealed himself a while back using Goon's own photo (taken from his APA website) and occasionally posting the same exact diatribe under both handles (but not in a "quote" situation.
http://www.ausairpower.net/CV-PAG-2007.html
Perplexed is no doubt an APA "contributer" and more than likely is not one individual person but several who use the same handle. As is "Amicus Curiae" and likely others. Quite a touchy fellow too.
He has the temerity to complain to the moderators about the slightest insult, yet has no trouble whatsoever dishing them out to anyone who fails to immediately fall in line with the latest Clown Club (collective term for APA and it's followers) directive.
It seems to be the typical APA modus operandi, using multiple handles to attempt to "gang up" on those that disagree with them and their nonsense however.
He (they) did the exact same thing a few years back on Defencetalk under the name "Occum" before we got sick of them and sent them on a permanent vacation.
A very curious situation when they themselves constantly lambast people for "hiding behind pseudonyms"...
They have quite a few tricks though. Another I like to refer to as "resumes at ten paces" involves their usual response to anyone with any slightly technical inkling disagreeing with their opinions.
Despite protestations of a desire to "play the ball not the man" they almost immediately request a person's resume and/or qualifications upon anyone bothering to question their opinions...
This of course violently opposes their stated dislike of "appeals to authority" type arguments but then, few have ever accused them of rationality...
A classy bunch, no?
Phil: You're assuming the people most critical of the F-35 understand the development process. They don't and are pretty much clueless. They just lap up what is spoon fed them.
ReplyDeleteWhilst I am no great fan of F35B for reasons to numerous to go into at the moment I am begining to think it will go ahead.
ReplyDeleteAs to the programme as a whole it is going to be the future backbone of western aviation whether we like it or not.
Personaly I do like it,and all the s**t coming out regarding 5th generation aircraft from Russia or China is pure nonsense.
Sure they have these prototype aircraft flying but what are there capabilities? my take is that F35 is in the lead and with future mods will lead the world for a good number of years.
Much like F16,a supposedly cheap light weight fighter that has developed into one of the worlds foremost multi role aircraft.
Hi Solomon-
ReplyDeleteNice effort with the blog over here - looks good. Thought I'd look it up after your posts over on Ares. Maybe I can help - can you identify what in Bill's and Graham's posts are the "assertions" you're having a hard time believing? Maybe I can shed some light on them from a technical point of view. I have a suspicion as to why Lockmart hasn't (and probably won't) respond to you, but it's an opinion and it really isn't anything to do with technical reasons.
Cheers,
XGdude