[BikerJoe]

1. Using the word 'plots' is unusual. 2. By 2025, this Country may find the aircraft unaffordable.

It'll be affordable if we actually want to build it. I know some folks working on the F-35, and the reason it has cost problems is because (once again) its electronics and software systems are an order of magnitude more complex than the F-22, which in turn were the most complex we'd ever put in a fighter, etc., etc.

IMHO, the question is whether we should be spending a decade or more on systems engineering for a single multi-role platform or just make multiple, simpler platforms.

[stefanbatory]

we could also design it so the electronics could be easily upgraded, but that would make too much sense, I guess...

[verity]

"...or just make multiple, simpler platforms..."

Do you know is this was ever proposed? If so, I suspect the "multi-role" proponents have much more influence.