It doesn’t actually change the fact the F-35 is a POS flying anvil that is weighed down by so much mission creep and politics that it is amazing it gets into the air.
If the F-15, 16 or 18s had the history of the F-35 we would still be flying F-104s (not that would be a terrible thing).
GET THE F-35 BACK TO ITS ORIGINAL MISSION AS AN MRF!!!
GET THE F-22 FLYING AGAIN AS THE AIR SUPERIORITY FRAME!!!
So simple, only Trump could do it!!
Seeing posts around here you’d think half the people we’d still be doing communication via carrier pigeon
Back in the early seventies I was working for Hughes Aircraft Company and we took an instrumented Phoenix missile back Grumman to hang on an F-14 and measure the captive flight environment. Its first flight was on flight number three of F-14 number three. About two years later we had heard that number three departed and the pilot recovered and landed. At that debrief that were many naval officers and I assumed they were picking up jets to go to the fleet.
The F-14 didn't have a bazillion lines of code but it was still a pretty complex airplane.
In my opinion the major problem with defense acquisition is the fact that after all the defense companies merged there is no competition and no innovation.