Oh, I get what you are saying; the program bidding process was flawed, not the actual program (tanker) itself.
The lease was a crime, worked out between very senior Boeing execs (went to jail) and a corrupt AF Sec trolling for a Boeing job for her, her daughter and her daughter’s husband.
The Sec was prosecuted, the daughter fired (woefully incompetent recent college grad hired at a senior executive level), but the husband is a good engineer and remains with Boeing.
The crime was discovered when internal Boeing people turned in the leadership for the violations.
Yes, the procurement process has been a failure. It should have been pretty simple to get a much needed tanker replacement in a whole lot less time than it took.
Pretty shameful affair wasn’t it?
I still don’t think much of the F-35 though. It is a force fit. Every time someone defends it they have to make excuses for it. e.g. “it can carry a bigger load externally but it is no longer LO”. It does not do what it was supposed to do. It is also hurt by short range and say what you may about engine reliability, the Navy and their pilots liked the Scooter but would have liked it a whole lot more if it had two engines. What makes it more insulting is that Lockheed lobbied to shut down their own F-22 production run in favor of the much more profitable F-35. They did it for money and no other reason. I can’t imagine there was not some hanky panky going on there as well.