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The F-35 is kind of a re-engineered F-22. Biggest difference: one engine versus two.

The F-22 came in with an “air superiority” mission. The ability to stay in the air or to deliver ordinance was considerably reduced to buy stealth. Additional capabilities were added (e.g., ground attack, by attaching ordinance at hard points), but at the cost of degrading stealth when in configured for alternate missions. At one level of analysis, we could suppose that - having gained air superiority - F-22s could be re-configured for other missions. At another level of analysis, the re-purposing of the F-22 as a multi-mission war plane was to penetrate the defenses of the U.S. Congress which resisted spending five times as much on F-22s capable of only a single mission, as F-18s would cost.

As a single-mission plane, the F-22 is awesome. With the relatively small number of F-22s we have, we can gain air superiority over practically any potential adversary short of China or Russia. This gives the President options. But, the F-22 is too expensive to be the main stay of our air forces.

The single-engine F-35 was to imitate the stealthiness of the F-22 and yet be less than half the cost. Flight times and ordinance were low - like the F-22 - when in stealth mode, but could be ratcheted up with external fuel tanks, bombs and/or missiles. The problem is, while the F-35 is less costly than the F-22, it is still much more costly than the two-engine F-18 or the one-engine F-16. So, how does the military come up the money to outfit the services?

Now comes the realization that the F-35 has real problems due to its single-engine in terms of speed, climbing, and maneuver, in terms of the failure rate of its engine, and the challenges (already known and not addressed in this piece) it poses in its carrier variant and its marine variant. At this time, the military-industrial complex is saying we’re stuck with the thing. Strong-arm tactics are being used with allies such as Canada to maintain their orders, some of which are nevertheless trimming or outright canceling orders and commitments.

Depending on how long we continue with acquisition of F-35s, this could become the greatest error in military procurement in the history of the world.