federal and state.
FYI:
Activist says F-35s bound for Burlington have a nuclear mission. They don’t.
By Colin Meyn on Wednesday, April 10th, 2019 at 10:22 p.m.
Our Ruling
Siegel formulated her statement in a way that is confusing at best, but certainly misleading. It leads readers to believe that the bombers coming to Vermont will be equipped to carry nuclear bombs. That is false.
However, it’s true that the Department of Defense intends to use F-35s to deliver its nuclear arsenal if needed. And there’s good reason to believe that the bombers in Burlington could someday be given a nuclear mission.
We rate this claim mostly false.
https://www.politifact.com/vermont/statements/2019/apr/11/rachel-siegel/activist-says-f-35s-bound-burlington-have-nuclear-/
Why Bernie Sanders is backing a $1.5 trillion military boondoggle
Published Tue, Jul 12 20169:32 AM EDTUpdated Tue, Jul 12 20169:52 AM EDT
Daniel Bukszpan, special to CNBC.com
“Our fear is that if it didn’t have a mission in Vermont, instead of 1,100 jobs, we’d probably only have 100 jobs,” Richards said. “We believe the investment of this aircraft ensures it will be here for years to come. We really think this is a tremendous opportunity for the country and for the state of Vermont.”
Be that as it may, the F-35?s path to deployment has been a long and arduous one. It’s also been an expensive one.
The F-35B, one of three variants of the jet, was declared operational in July 2015 by the U.S. Marine Corps, 14 years after Lockheed Martin first won the contract and at a final cost of $134 million per plane, according to The Wall Street Journal. According to Vanity Fair, the Department of Defense had originally said the jet would be “combat-capable” by 2010, a prediction that was off by five years.
Oh, and let’s not forget the $55 billion spent on research, development, testing and evaluation; $319 billion spent on procurement; $5 billion spent on military construction and $1.1 trillion in operating and support costs, according to the F-35 Lightning II Program Fact Sheet’s Selected Acquisition Report 2015 Cost Data. Altogether, that gives this program a price tag of $1.5 trillion, making it by far the most expensive program in military weapons history.
The F-35 has also encountered numerous technical problems, and they’re not small ones. According to The Air Force Times, the plane has experienced “catastrophic engine failure,” and according to The Washington Post, it experienced “life-threatening” ejection-seat malfunctions in October 2015, three months after the U.S. Marine Corps declared the B variant operational.
CNBC.com reached out to Sanders for comment, and his office responded with a link to a statement on the senator’s official website about the stationing of the F-35A at Burlington International Airport in mid-2019. However, at a 2014 town hall meeting in New Hampshire, Sanders was asked about his continued support for the program, and he said that it’s not the plane that he supports but the jobs and revenue that it brings to his state.
“In the real world, if the plane is built … and if the choice is if that goes to Vermont … South Carolina or Florida, what is your choice as a United States Senator?” he asked. “Do you want it to go to South Carolina? ... My view is that given the reality of the damn plane, I’d rather it come to Vermont than to South Carolina. And that’s what the Vermont National Guard wants, and that means hundreds of jobs in my city. That’s it.”
While this statement doesn’t offer much in the way of insight into Sanders’ feelings about the military industrial complex, it does say one thing quite explicitly — the F-35 is a boon to Vermont’s economy, despite its checkered history of high costs and delays. Richards said that in his experience, those things come with the territory when it comes to any piece of high-velocity hardware, and if the end result is a safer product, he’s fine with that.
“This is typical for a government-funded new aircraft,” he said. “It typically takes longer. But I would prefer that they take the time to get it right. I’m not in a rush to see it make a deadline. The finish line is safety.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/12/why-bernie-sanders-is-backing-a-15-trillion-military-boondoggle.html
Bernie Sanders’s Support for F-35 Jets in Vermont Angers Some Backers
Proposal would boost regional economy, proponents say, but progressives argue it is inconsistent with his views
By Eliza Collins
Aug. 20, 2019 10:17 am ET
https://www.wsj.com/articles/bernie-sanderss-support-for-f-35-jets-in-vermont-angers-some-supporters-11566310652
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