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Pentagon: Slow F-35 Production  by John Reed on December 2, 2011
First International F-35 Rolls Out of the Factory  So, the
interwebs are abuzz this morning with news that the man in
charge of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program wants to slow
down production — and therefore deliveries of the jet.  The
slowdown is needed to install fixes to numerous structural
cracks and “hot spots” that have been found in the plane over
the last year, Vice Adm. David Venlet, JSF program manager, told
AOL Defense. The work needed to remedy these cracks could add $3
to $5 million to the cost of each jet.  Keep in mind that the
Pentagon just reduced the latest F-35 purchase by five jets, so
this news comes on top of that.  Venlet insists that these
cracks aren’t an immediate safety issue, they would however
cause the airframes to be pulled from service well before their
planned 8,000 flight-hour lifetimes.  Here’s key quote from
Venlet where he says that ‘heavy learning