Thursday, March 23, 2006

Another F-35 Trainwreck?

War

Maybe not.  But the Christian Science Monitor is reporting that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter programme might be running into some more problems.  Recently, the Brits threatened to pull out of the quarter trillion dollar project over technology sharing issues.  Though that seems to be on track to resolution - both sides having reported “extremely productive” talks in negotiations - there is a something else on the radar screen. 

UAE owned holding firm Dubai International Capital bought Doncasters, a privately held British aerospace manufacturer, in a deal worth $1.2 billion.  That company is involved with the F-35, and another congressional investigation could cause yet another row.  I think that this is another case of a (relatively) innocent company being guilty of little more than “driving while arab.” There is reason to be cautious about our secrets and all, but if this busts out into a minor scale controversy, you can be sure that it is much more likely to be about some hack politician’s reelection chances than about a legitimate security concern.  And if it pisses off the Brits, that’s a damn shame, because we couldn’t ask for a better ally, and should be doing all that we can to include them in, not acting like they’re our wierd bug-eyed cousin wanting to borrow twenty-grand for a fur bearing trout farm.


Posted by Buckethead on 03/23/06 at 05:18 PM
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