Re JSF and budget cuts:
1 - Sequester or not, cliff or not, more budget cuts are on the way.
2 - You can't cut the DoD topline without a major whack at procurement, because pay and benefits are a bigger piece than ever and can't be cut rapidly.
2 - You can't cut procurement without a whack at JSF because it as big as the next several major programs put together.
The CSBA, indubitably the smartest of the Washington defense think tanks, ran an exercise in the summer where seven teams pulled from industry and government - working independently and off-the-record - aimed at likely budget levels using a common set of tools.
Six teams cut back JSF to a greater or lesser extent. The other let JSF have it, piff-bang in the ol' gazoo.