Pentagon's odd selling points for a fighter, the F-35 Lightning II, a jet it needs

F-35 Lightning II

The Pentagon is promoting the purchase of the F-35 Lightning II in an odd way, DoD Buzz is reporting. Rather than touting its benefits for our national defense, it is going about it an unusual way--talking about the costs of the fighter, such as maintenance, over the next 35 years.

It's like buying a car and having the sales person tell you--"Oh, besides the cost of the vehicle, you'll have to fix it once in a while, buy insurance--and oh, then there's depreciation."

From DoD Buzz:

The Defense Department could have neutralized this by releasing a comparable analysis for its existing fighters - Lockheed is set to deliver its 4,500th F-16 this week, for example. From first doodles to this week's jet, how much has been spent on every F-16 ever built, including fuel, maintenance, shark-mouth nose art; glow wands for the ramp marshals, coffee in the pilots' ready rooms, etc?

If the Pentagon's number wizards had that breakdown, in fiscal '13 dollars, they could potentially have made the F-35 look like a bargain, or at least put it into context. But they didn't, and the world's largest defense program had yet another bad week in Washington.

Click here to learn about a Pentagon spokesman's defense of the jet.

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