re: #534 Targetpractice, Worst of Both Worlds

The F-111 proved the adage that a cow is a race horse designed by committee. The aircraft that the zoomies got was exactly what they wanted, but the Navy got the shaft and was lucky that Congress was willing to sign off on allowing Grumman to go forward with building the F-14. Otherwise, they’d have spent the rest of the 70s and 80s soldiering on with the F-4.

The F-35 is quickly becoming the same deal, as it’s exactly the aircraft that the Air Force wants, namely an F-16 replacement. But the Navy and Marines got strong-armed into signing on, with the alternative (once again) being the cancellation of their own procurement programs in order to provide funds for yet another Air Force fighter.

The idea that commonality will save development cost has been proven fallacious over and over but it has an irresistible attraction for each new generation of managerial whiz-kids. Commonality is possible, as the F-4 showed, but only when it wasn’t a factor in the original development.