report is at http://www.cnas.org/files/documents/...10_code324.pdf

New CNAS Report Examines F-35, American Power and the Global Defense
Industry

WASHINGTON, DC, FEBRUARY 22, 2010 – Secretary of Defense Robert Gates'
recent firing of the F-35 Program Manager has heightened concerns in
the policy community that the plane is failing to meet its economic
and military objectives. But in a new report, CNAS Non-Resident Senior
Fellow Ethan Kapstein suggests that the multinational F-35 exemplifies
the complexity of the Pentagon's global acquisition strategy.

In the report Arsenal’s End? American Power and the Global Defense
Industry, Kapstein argues that the Pentagon has abandoned the post-war
American strategy of serving as the free world's "arsenal" and instead
has focused on becoming the "hub" of a global defense-industrial
network. Far from being an isolated case of poor program management,
Kapstein argues, the F-35 could exemplify deeper problems with
Pentagon acquisition strategy. Addressing those problems, however,
would require making data on international defense procurement
available to the research community, Kapstein points out.

Unlike the majority of defense acquisition analyses, which tend to
focus on the causes of cost overruns and delays that are associated
with the procurement of nearly every major weapons platform, Arsenal's
End? focuses on some of the deeper changes shaping the structure of
America’s defense-industrial base, changes that could have a
significant impact on the nation’s ability to prosecute major
conflicts in the future.