We understand the reluctance to simply walk away from the Pentagon’s plan to buy a fleet of Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning Joint Strike Fighters. But the time has come to either cancel or significantly downsize the program.

On an emotional level, that’s a hard recommendation to make. The plane, which being developed to replace several fighter, strike, and ground attack aircraft now on use, is a sleek, technologically advanced thing of beauty. And, if we could ever get it to work the way it should, it would be an amazingly capable and lethal weapon of war. In short, the F-35 is – or at least has the potential to be – very cool.

Add that the usual Washington considerations – like bureaucratic inertia, jobs in key Congressional districts and lawmakers’ innate desire to keep key defense contractors well fed – it would be hard for the Pentagon and Congress to completely give up on the F-35.

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