4 ms·

The article you cite for the PLAN system states that it completed it's 7th test flight. This is not operational. For instance the F-35 only recently became "op

• paulmd 10y ago
  And on the flip side, the P-51 Mustang took 149 days from placement of the order to the flight of the first prototypes (and the near-immediate order of a run of 300 further aircraft for evaluation). I'm not disagreeing with you that a test firing is vastly different from serial production, but the F-35 is the poster child for an unreasonably protracted and dysfunctional development process. It's a massively complex system with a dozen different major players all trying to pull it in conflicting directions with dozens of contractors all trying to make sure they diffuse the project across all 435 Congressional districts. The overall implication that because the F-35 is a trainwreck that it's not possible to ever develop a weapons system on a fast timeframe - that I disagree with. The fact that we are dysfunctional does not make everyone else so.
  • dfsegoat 10y ago
    Oh for sure - F-35 is a dog and I could have picked a better example, and I would even support your point to the extreme with: http://breakingdefense.com/2016/10/holy-smoke-gm-army-turn-out-new-hydrogen-car-in-9-months/ http://breakingdefense.com/2016/10/holy-smoke-gm-army-turn-o... They went from rfp => selection => 1st prototype in 9 months. Obviously, a car is a bit different than a 5th gen fighter. But still.