Issue 274: Fighting Back

Lockheed Martin battles JSF cost concerns

Tom Burbage spends most of his time travelling across the US and around the world to keep political representatives from 50 states, eight partner nations and half a dozen prospective customer countries up to date on the world’s largest, and arguably most controversial, defence program.

Lockheed Martin’s vice president of F-35 program integration comes across as honest and unflappable, with an enthusiasm and a clear vision for the program, despite occasional frustration over the multilayered quagmire that is the US budgetary process. But what keeps Burbage awake most at night are not any of the unresolved technical aspects of the program, nor the cost and development schedule clouds hanging over the JSF program, nor even having to deal with hostile elements in the media and ‘blogosphere’.