Have you ever read the article Lockheed Stock and Two Smoking Barrels? I suggest everyone read it. It's a classic. So basically, if Lockheed wants to empty its stock, we launch a war.Prior to joining Lockheed, [Bruce] Jackson had served as executive director of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), the think tank whose principles included Dick Cheney. PNAC served as the Bush administration's blueprint for preemptive war and authored a 1998 open letter to President Bill Clinton calling for military force to oust Saddam Hussein.
The more history I study, the more parallels I see between America and feudal Europe. The CIA was a gentlemen's club of adventurers who were all well-connected; the Federal Reserve was created by business interests for business interests. I think I read that article back when it was topical. No one was surprised. Ben Rich, director of Lockheed's Skunk Works for the Stealth Fighter and beyond, put it pretty succinctly: defense contractors exist pretty much on the constant dole of the government and who gets what project is much more a matter of need than a matter of successful design. He was talking smack about the Rockwell B-1 bomber at the time but the mirror could certainly be held up to the F-35.