"'Yes, yes, Mrs Lincoln, but, apart from that, how did you enjoy the play".....
None of the items you list were inevitable - they were due to the screw ups of the management team appointed - and IIRC you have commented on such repeatedly yourself - and that is one of the cardinal points considered during selection - the quality of the team.
Boeing screwed up putting in the team it did by misunderstanding the magnitude of the task - the DoD totally failed by failing to question Boeing's contract assumptions. Hindsight is wonderful - but who will pay the final expense - Boeing or the taxpayer?
As a personal observation, as major manufacturers have consolidated Boeing is half international as is Airbus - engines, avionics etc. The USA screwed up by having an industrial policy which closed MD and squeezed LM out of large aircraft manufacture - at the same time as effectively shutting down Boeing FJ manufacture. Airbus with the intent to open US plants gave the opportunity of reversing the emerging monopoly - they blew it.
Shareholder will ensure Airbus won't compete against Boeing for any future US military large jet contests as they know it is merely a way of the DoD trying to force Boeing to lower its price in a contest they can't win. Buy American does have its costs; and the F-35 programme and its costs may have done the same for the prospect of future US sales in the FJ market - China will do to LM what VW and Toyota/Mazda have done to the car market.
Last edited by ORAC; 31st Jan 2017 at 19:37.