Originally Posted by Dervish
The point is missed. If a company can ignore basics on F-35, they can on other aircraft as well. If 150 aircraft are fielded before a basic safety process is fixed, then it is wrong to spin it as "It's good to highlight them and get them fixed." How long has the F-35 program been running? The reality, IMO, is they've been caught out by an excellent audit and their priority now will be working out how to transfer the cost to the DoD.
That little problem has been fixed with the last contract negotiations
for LRIP 6 and 7, basically every new problem can/will lead to a price increase.
The two sides will share equally the costs of all known retrofits needed for the aircraft, while any newly discovered changes could result in higher contract costs, the Pentagon said."
UPDATE 1-Pentagon finalizes $7.8 bln in F-35 contracts with Lockheed | Reuters