Or, on the other hand, these honorable Marine officers could simply be telling the truth...
"What they say to to test engineers and what’s printed by other outsiders in the know so to speak is the opposite."
Which is another way of saying that testing focuses on what still needs to be improved, instead of what's already working well... Thank you, Captain Obvious.
As for those "in the know" outsiders, many view them as outsiders "with an axe to grind".
"The aircraft is a S/W nightmare and it’s FMC rate is about 50%."
Really...? Note that the following article is from Feb. 2017...
F-35A At Red Flag: 90% Mission Capable; Key Systems Up Every Flight
The 13 F-35As maintained a 90 percent mission capable rate during the three-week exercise, respectable for any combat aircraft. Planes did have problems, including one that lost a generator, but every issue was dealt with inside of 24 hours, according to two Air Force officers talking to reporters today at the end of the exercises....and...“We flew these jets hard. We flew a ton of missions in Red Flag during those four weeks. I would strongly disagree (with the proposition) that the jets are not ready. We are ready to take these jets on the road whenever we’re asked to,” Lt. Col. George Watkins, 34th Fighter Squadron commander, told us. And he said the 3i software that controls the plane, its weapons, and sensors performed extremely well.
While Boeing continues to press the Navy to buy F/A-18E/F Super Hornets for the carrier fleet and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has ordered a review of the carrier version of the Joint Strike fighter, the F-35C, there was no doubt expressed by the pilots at today’s roundtable about whether they would prefer to fly a fourth-generation plane — like the F-16 or F-18 — or a fifth-gen plane like the F-35 for the Air Force: “The capabilities we are bringing are better than a fourth-gen aircraft. I would not want to go back and take an F-16 back into Red Flag,” Watkins said....and...
How did the F-35A fare at striking targets with bombs? They dropped 27 bombs and hit 25 targets “exactly within a foot of where it was supposed to hit.” The two weapons that missed were caused by weapon failures, not the jet, Watkins said.The F-35 will end up like the F-22 - a horribly expensive boondoggle during development, and then the world's best in its class once operational. It's a more than worthy successor to the F-16, which is a great fighter in its own right.
The F-35 brings entirely new capabilities to the table, and the F-35B is the first supersonic STOVL fighter in history. Allied air supremacy is assured for decades to come.
