[Proud_USA_Republican]

I think the real problem comes down to one simple thing.

They tried to pack way too many roles into a single design which creates serious compromises on performance.

[BikerJoe]

They tried to pack way too many roles into a single design which creates serious compromises on performance.

I know people who are doing serious research on complexity management for the systems on the F-35. That either says that they're pushing the state of the art or are trying to do WAY too much (or both).

The F-22 avionics had similar problems (esp. the radar), but to their credit, a lot of clever folks are still finding new things they can do with it, so I'd say it was a great design (although you have to wonder if it was worth taking 10+ years to do).

Hopefully, the F-35 will be a similar win.