Originally Posted by
Niner Lima Charlie
Finishing up with...
"Despite all of the effort, time, and money—17 years and over $133 billion—spent to date on the F-35 program, it is doubtful it will ever live up to the lavish promises made all those years ago when the Defense Department and Congress committed to the program. Hidden within the pages of the DOT&E report is this litotic summation:
“Finally and most importantly, the program will likely deliver Block 3F [the untested, allegedly “fully combat-capable” F-35 model now entering production] to the field with shortfalls in capabilities the F-35 needs in combat against current threats.”
Whether it will live up to 'lavish promises’ or suffer shortfalls in 'anticipated capabilities’ might just be countered with... is it flying? Can it do a specific tasks that up till now was not possible? Is it a credible counter to similar type threats being developed by enemies?