The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program is intended to develop and build a
family of new-generation tactical combat aircraft for the U.S. Air Force,
the marine Corps, the Navy, and Britain's Royal Navy. As now projected, the
JSF will become the U.S. Defense Department's largest ever acquisition
program in terms of future cost and number of aircraft to be produced. A
controversial aspect of the program has been the winner-take-all approach
that DOD used to award the development and demonstration contract. On
October 26, 2001, it was announced that a team led by Lockheed martin (and
composed of Northrop Grumman, and BAE Systems) had beaten a team led by
Boeing, winning the exclusive rights to enter the JSF program's system
development and demonstration phase, and to build all 2,912 JSF aircraft.
Some observers contend that this approach to JSF production could have
negative implications for the defense industrial base and U.S. national
security.
