Big defense projects have a long and storied history of going awry. As this recently unearthed Aesop fable shows, it's a problem that's been around for millennia.

The United States is making a gigantic investment in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, billed as the next generation of combat aircraft. It's no secret, however, that the program -- the most expensive in American history -- is a calamity.

Once again, Inside Defense and Defence iQ have reported on the latest doings involving the still-problematic F-35.

The F-35 program's biggest obstacle seems to be the enormous amount of software code that needs to be written and verified.

Today, Heritage's defense efforts are homilies supporting smaller forces, less people in uniform, and more dollars to buy fewer weapons of increasing ineffectiveness. How sad. How pathetic. How destructive to the security of Americans.

With Defense budget cuts being criticized by Republicans, and Democrats striving to do as little damage as possible when they make the cuts, the F-35 suggests itself as a program worth considering.

With the nation in grave economic distress, why are some Congressmen and Senators refusing to cut defense spending? If we hadn't invested in the F-35, our national debt would be almost 3 percent less than it is now.

The "cuts" Panetta fears so much are not reductions in actual military spending, they're reductions in what the DoD has planned to spend. So why is he evoking Cold War warnings and trying to create hysteria?

The F-35 is the "next generation" weapon system for the Navy, Air Force, and Marines -- who plan to buy 2,443 of these aircraft -- and for eight allied nations who are cost-sharing partners in the program and will hopefully buy hundreds of additional aircraft. But what's its cost?

Washington: Sometimes events are, in and of themselves, news. So it was today when the Joint Strike Fighter program working with the Marines, flew the...

America's allies depend on continuing the F-35. America's war fighters deserve a state-of-the-art fighter jet. America's workers demand more high-wage family-supporting jobs. Now, it's up to Congress to act.

Now, given Osama bin Laden's death, we must seize this moment to heal from the past harm done to our homeland and ensure that no further harm is done to our troops, by bringing them home.

By Colin Clark Editor, AOL Defense WASHINGTON -- Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, is likely to insert ...

By Colin Clark Editor, AOL Defense WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration may think it has killed the second engine program for the world’s most...

To call some of our most important defense programs "boondoggles" and to say that their elimination will actually enhance our national security is an overstatement.

Cross-posted on POGO's blog. This morning, veteran defense aerospace reporter Bill Sweetman took a look at the different unit costs of F-35 Joint Stri...

Why has the Obama administration dug in its heels on the Joint Strike Fighter? Is it an example of successful lobbying? Could a single defense contractor really have that much influence over the Obama administration?

The Democratically-controlled Congress is currently on a collision course with the Obama administration, the Pentagon and the Secretary of Defense over the Defense Authorization Bill.

A Q&A provides a useful summary of the issues surrounding the F-35 and the factors that should influence where military units are based in the US, and some factors that should not.

With a projected cost of $388 Billion, the Pentagon's F-35 program is becoming today's poster for what in the 1980s Washington Post cartoonist Herblock depicted as a $600 toilet seat hanging around the neck of then Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger.

Our country is facing a budget deficit that threatens our ability to operate as a functioning democracy. Whether or not you agree with the Blue Dogs, you have to agree that we need to get the budget deficit under control.