Harry Andreas wrote:
On one side is the old guard: "Defense acquisition experts with the watchdog
Government Accountability Office" who want the aircraft to roll off the
line fully developed. What they want, in the WWII context, is a P-51H coming
off the production line from the get-go.

Humm, I recall seeing a GAO report (link was in this newsgroup some
time ago think) where the point was exactly the opposite. GAO wanted to
have spiral development and cited F-16 as a succesful example of it,
while project management was pressing for a finished product.

The reasons stated were in addition to reducing development risks that
a large number of aircraft in US inventory are getting old, and even a
minor delay in tight F-35 schedule has grave consequences for both
fighter availability and maintenance costs.

Mvh,
Jon K