the F22 would have been the superior platform.
But lobbyists...

Feh.

Now we're gonna be stuck with a ridiculously expensive that no one likes and doesn't work.


WAY TO GO PENTAGON!

And neither can the F-35. Jeeze.

The Marines need a A/V 8B Harrier Jump Jet replacement... That's the only fighter I see the F-35 (when it is actually finished) being a good replacement for.

One of the sexiest planes ever made.
It's right up there with the P-38 Lightning, in my humble opinion.

do the job same for the A 10 but thats just my personal opinion based on what I have read and I could very well be wrong, lord knows it wouldnt be the first time LOL

could never handle the tank busting gun on the A-10

They're trying to make one plane do too much shit.

The whole idea behind the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was for it to be, you know, joint. That is to say, the same basic plane would work for the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps and foreign countries.

Lockheed Martin is designing the F-35 to meet all the requirements of all three U.S. military branches from the outset, with — in theory — only minor differences between the Air Force's F-35A, the Marines' F-35B, and the Navy's F-35C.

The variants were supposed to be 70-percent common. But Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, head of the JSF program office, told a seminar audience on Feb. 10 that the three F-35 models are only 20- to 25-percent common, mainly in their cockpits.

In other words, the F-35 is actually three different warplanes. The F-35, F-36, and F-37.

It locks in certain orders and payments as a verified aircraft. F-35 in all forms is the most useless platform they've built since the B-36. 3 other much less expensive and far more capable combat aircraft could have been on line and working to do the jobs correctly that they have crammed into this one air-frame that can't be flown in the rain, yet. It has to be re-booted several times during warm up on the ground before it can take off, IF it can leave the hanger at all.

This one plane is very nearly as dangerous to defense and foreign policy as Donald Trump.

In daylight however, it's going to get its ass handed to it and we're going to lose a lot of brave young men and women because if the AF's insistence to keep pushing this POS forward.

the Drunken Sparrow?

MIG 29s.

Faster, cheaper, etc.

Lots of components for the F-35 no doubt come from China and/or other sources.

Critical components like landing gear are outsourced for the F-18.
I know this because a friend had to remake the parts here in the US.
His company had a contract to replace the faulty stuff coming in.
Why would any other fighter be different...

It's not like that money could have been put to better use or anything.

Why are the American people so fucking stupid? The Military Industrial Money Making Machine has to end.

But then the Mustang pilot arrived and all was lost.

Thanks for that!