Is the JSF [Joint Strike Fighter] critical to the Corps?
KRULAK: Yes. It is important not just to the Marine Corps, but to the nation. I believe industry can produce an airplane that meets the key performance parameters. It will save billions of dollars by taking the price of an airplane from the $60­70 million per system to about one-half of that, and it will be unbelievably good. I just think we need to do that. We will blacken the skies with a stealthy, very good, 21st-century fighter-attack aircraft. The Corps made the conscious decision not to buy the Super Hornet [F/A-18E/F fighter/attack aircraft]. If you can get a short-takeoff/vertical-landing version of the JSF, you get a weapons system that is truly a leap ahead in technology. Other nations will not be able to keep up with it. We believe it is the absolutely correct decision. Are the other services as committed to the JSF as the Marine Corps is? KRULAK: You are going to hear rumors where the Navy or Air Force are falling off. I talked to Mike Ryan and Jay Johnson [U.S. Air For
