What is certain is that LM, the Pentagon and the other parties involved have gotten the press fully under control, it is downright laughable to read article upon article in various press sources who are all literally identical word for word and no more than statements straight out of the LM press map.
Damn straight. Villainous reptiles.
LM has also played "new media" quite well - but it's a field where the contractor has the advantage because there is very little money in it. For instance, there's one DC-based defense news site that has two fully-paid-up LockMart shills on its "board of contributors" and (surprise) takes a pro-JSF line.
As for "FRP": the legal definition doesn't include a fixed units-per-year number. Under the reforms that introduced LRIP, production is normally restricted to "low rate" until the system has passed IOT&E. The total of LRIP is formally limited to ten per cent of the planned complete production run, although there is a waiver provision that JSF will have to use. In fact, JSF LRIP rate is supposed to get higher than any other fighter since the Cold War days of the F-16 - and that's what counts if you want to make cost comparisons.
Last edited by LowObservable; 7th Nov 2013 at 15:59.