I was under the impression that the F-35 was supposed to be all that and a bag of chips, now they want another??? Oh, wait, Military Industrial Complex, graft, and so on. Business as usual.
I was under the impression
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Wrong impression. Still a plane designed by committee that is supposed to do everything, but nothing well, plus having a $4 trillion maintenance budget.
It would not last more than a few minutes in any actual combat for lack of a gun with almost no ammo that does not aim true and missiles that are out-ranged. Not to mention, its only stealthy from the frontal aspect and only to old radars.
Pilots love it because it flies nice ... when they can manage to get it away from the maintenance guys. Its combat readiness is something like 20%, one of the lowest scores recorded.