LO wrote:
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.
Fascinating on the CSBA work - they're excellent, and the conclusion aren't surprising. Even with Tricare reform, manpower reductions, and ending large-scale combat operations in Afghanistan, cuts are inevitable - with procurement taking a big hit. It's much more sensible to take 100% savings from cutting whole programmes rather than a 10% across the board cuts - meaning that some serious thought needs to be given to Dave-B/C, future bomber (is there really a need for a nuclear triad at the projected force levels?), DD(X), future size of the US Army. Interesting times....
S41