I saw this coming from the moment I heard about the new multi-role fighter. A few years ago a parachute company came out with a new canopy that was supposed to be great at canopy relative work, accuracy and high performance landings. Of course it was a failure, doing none of them well. You can’t make something that’s good at everything, you can’t make a sports car that’s also a good off road truck. With what we spent and will have to continue to spend on the F-35 we could have bought hundreds and hundreds of proven airframes like the F-15, F-16, F18 and A-10. Even if the F-35 finally lives up to it’s hype if we can only afford to buy 6 of them and they are too valuable to risk in combat what good are they? Remember, quantity has a quality all it’s own.
