Word: year
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...response to what I consider to be unacceptable delays and cost overruns over the past year, this department has taken a number of steps to fundamentally restructure this program," Gates told a House panel on Wednesday. "I have replaced the [F-35] program manager ... while withholding more than $600 million ... from the lead contractor" - that would be Lockheed Martin, the nation's biggest defense firm, the same company that built...
Unfortunately, that was last year's logic. Gates said on Wednesday that Pentagon officials had bamboozled him with "overly rosy forecasts" that were more thorn than flower. After burrowing into the F-35's cost and schedule, President Obama's Pentagon team - including Bush Administration holdover Gates - recently discovered deep-rooted problems. "Things are more complicated than people imagined they were going to be," Ashton Carter, the Pentagon's top weapons buyer, told reporters earlier this month. "You can't control costs, you can't control schedule if you're being unrealistic about costs and schedule...
...rush to build the F-35 has led to ever-changing blueprints, which has led to slowdowns on the production line, which has delayed flight testing. How bad is it? Last year, engineers expected to churn out 200 changes - a month! - to the F-35's design, but actually generated about 500. Even after Gates' restructuring, taxpayers could spend close to $60 billion on more than 300 F-35s before flight testing is finished, meaning costly modifications will be required...
...Shari'a police continue to do their image - and Aceh's - no favors. In January, three officers were charged with raping a local 20-year-old student in their custody, prompting calls from rights activists for the force's disbandment. Even so, for most regional and long-haul tourists, Shari'a and its enforcers are not the barrier. Rather, it is a lack of even half-decent hotels outside Banda Aceh, and Jakarta's apparent reluctance to grant immigration officials in this once independence-minded province the right to issue visas on arrival, as Bali has done for many years...
...miles inland from the famous links of St. Andrews, Scotland, the Peat Inn offers the perfect refuge for golfing pilgrims battered by wind, rain and a relentless assault of fish 'n' chips and other greasy Scottish clubhouse fare. This 300-year-old former coaching inn, which sits on the edge of a desolately beautiful field, is run by husband-and-wife duo Geoffrey and Katherine Smeddle and has just been awarded a Michelin star. A recent meal had the rewarding combination of surprise (cannelloni of hare) and comfort (roast rib eye of beef in red-wine sauce...