Amos has less than 24 hours left in the Commandant's chair and I've been scouring the internet to get some last words from him....a statement on his tenure as Commandant of the world's greatest fighting force.
All I found is this from Reuters.
"It's too soon to flinch," outgoing Marine Corps Commandant General James Amos said in an interview at his Pentagon office, when asked if the Marines would miss their target date for declaring an initial operational capability (IOC).Just plain wow.
"It's a tight timeline, but I think it's doable," he said. "But I'm a realist. If it's August, it's August. ... There is some risk in a mid-summer IOC but we've known that all along."
The Marine Corps has set July 2015 as the date by which it wants to be able to use the stealthy new jets in combat, followed by the Air Force in 2016 and the Navy in 2018 or 2019.
The Marines are slated to buy 340 F-35 B-models, which can take off from shorter runways and land vertically, plus 80 F-35 C-models, which have longer wings and a tailhook that allows them to land on aircraft carriers.
Amos said he remained bullish about the $399 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program despite a June 23 engine failure that grounded the F-35 fleet for several weeks this summer and has raised questions about the Marines' July target date.
His whole focus seems to be the F-35 and nothing else. The little bullshit "State of the Marine Corps" vids that are more cheerleading sessions than a serious look at where we're at just doesn't cut it.
Hopefully Dunford will bring a back to basics movement across the board when he takes the reins. We'll see what we'll see, but its obvious that a Commandant from the Wing only cared about the Wing.
He get a fucking fixation about this flying lemon or sit so deep in Lockheed Martin pocket that he can't do anything else then repeat like psychedelic mantra "F-25...F-35...Must Buy F-35"
ReplyDeleteAll hope in Dunford, if he frak up... this can be the end of USMC.
. Wonder how long till he has a job at Lockheed.
ReplyDeleteSol sent you a email.
I don't think many of us would be surprised if he did.
DeleteSomewhat related news: http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/products/compact-fusion.html
ReplyDeleteSocial media is all a flutter about a 'respected' company getting into the fusion business. HAHA!!! The company that still hasn't delivered the F-35 on-time, or within budget is looking for gov funding for experimental fusion work? Hell, it's just a back-up money-sink for when the F-35 finally goes down.
How long before he can have a seat on LMT board?
ReplyDeleteI guess the game plan for USMC is to have IOC in 2015, immediately drop a JDAM on some kid goat herder in Yemen and declare the F35 the best jet fighter ever produced.....