It is important and proper that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) responded to my criticisms of its March 2013 report on the Defense Department's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Any watchdog agency should jealously defend its competence and independence, especially when the foundations of its oversight come under attack from those with experience, and sources, inside the agency.
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The GAO took issue with my article, titled "Error Report," on three matters.
First, I am said to have ignored the "numerous quantitative indicators of development and production progress" that the GAO says substantiated its conclusion that "Overall, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is now moving in the right direction after a long, expensive, and arduous learning process." And yet, much of this "progress" "in the right direction" remains behind even the revised -- and much relaxed -- program schedule, and it is occurring just as the F-35 is entering the more strenuous part of its flight testing. More to the point, the favorable conclusion flies in the face of expert reports, such as that of the Defense Department's own director of operational test and evaluation, who has reported a growing, not diminishing, number of problems.
The GAO's implication that the F-35's more difficult years are behind it, not ahead, is, in effect, a recommendation to proceed with the F-35's highly "concurrent" (buy it before you finish testing it) acquisition schedule. Having criticized concurrency in the past, the GAO would surely protest it is doing no such thing now, but that is the effect. If you doubt my judgment, read the assessment of Lockheed Martin's hired consultant praising the GAO report. (Lockheed-Martin produces the F-35.)
Second, I am said to have mischaracterized the GAO's evidence of the F-35 program making "considerable progress" in resolving the serious problems in the all-important helmet-mounted display of essential flight and threat information for the pilot. The GAO's substantiation of the "progress" is the argument that "DOD is pursuing a dual-design approach, essentially creating an alternative to the display's original design." In others words, the fix for the failure in one design is to try a second ("while working to fix the first"). The "considerable progress" is not in the functioning of the helmet but in the management decision to try an alternate approach. However, nothing in the GAO report gives credence to material progress in either helmet. All we have is the assurance that "program and contractor officials told us that they have increased confidence that the helmet will be fixed." As I said in my article, when I worked in the GAO division specializing in program evaluation and methodology, we used to laugh derisively at such data-free "officials told us" reports.
Nonetheless, we are assured by the GAO that "Pursuing an alternative is an appropriate way to reduce risk." Indeed, if that is truly the case, and the GAO believes its own prescription, where is the alternative design for the ever-problematic F-35 itself, and where is the GAO recommendation that such a management approach should be imposed on DOD? The F-35 program is riddled with remaining risks (even according to GAO), and an alternative design for new, better, cheaper fighters and ground-attack aircraft would vastly inform the debate and give decision-makers real choices.
Finally, the GAO stoutly defends its independence and competence, saying that formal discussions with agency officials about the facts in a report "before a draft report is sent for official comments" are necessary and appropriate "to ensure that the facts are not in dispute." I could not agree more; that's not what I alleged.
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