KenV,
I repeat, NO ONE remotely credible doubts that the F-35 is multi-role, just as no one remotely credible doubts that the F-15E and the F/A-18E/F are multi-role. Indeed F-35 just performed a CAS evaluation against the A-10 so that's yet one more role beyond the half dozen or more already identified.
Of course it is multi-role, those in the military and Lockheed-Martin say that it is and they came up with three models to prove it is and together with the Pentagon, they moved the goalposts several times to make sure it is...
You must not be a believer in the
Dwight D. Eisenhower speech in 1961 on the Military-Industrial Complex:
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded. Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific technological elite.
All the elements of the F-35 Program are contained in the above Eisenhower's speech.
“You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."