The first rule of system engineering is when you try to make a system work under all possible requirements and roles, i.e., a generic replacement for everything.
The end result is a system that probably won’t do all, and what it can do is marginally acceptable, if that. The cold hard facts.
To the critics of the F-35,remember this.Even with its problems the present plane is a lot better version of the plane Boeing had planned to build.That was a dog of a plane that had to have parts removed in order to hover in place.
It was damned ugly as well.They say form follows function and the Boeing jet proved that.
Now it’s up to the Contractor,Lockheed-Martin to clean up the problems and turn it into a Mig killer it was supposed to be.
As with any and all things, if the F-35's success was a priority with the PTBs, it would be a stunning success. We, the public, might know how stunning a success it is or we might not.
The PTBs seem to have progressed to a different set of priorities these days, so it's hard to say one way or another.
That the F-35 program is, or is being perceived as being, a very expensive failure, whether that perception is accurate or not, is noteworthy.
Save the Warthog.
The primary requirement is first night, deep strike, into heavily protected environments. There are other aircraft that can arguably do that, but there was a desire to go stealth (not LO) for that mission. For the Raptor lovers that want to use F-22, there is also the requirement for the stealth carriage of 2,000 lb class j-weapons.
This is Mcnamaras F111 program redux. It was supposed to fill all roles but turned out to be a dog that did nothing well.