Mel,
I'm not saying this is new. I'm saying this is a typical insertion of a heated topic in the face of a significant milestone. Other major milestones are nothing to compared to this one - the first military Service declaring Initial Operating Capability? To some it means nothing, to others it really does. It effectively removes any chance the Program will be financially unsupported in future in my opinion. The USMC have fastidiously worked to this goal for years and I really do support and commend their ethic for doing so; I wish them every success and want to learn from them as they achieve it. I'm also fairly well read in many of the claims and counter-claims over 300-odd pages here, but contextualise this in that these really are relatively early days in a Program which will be a focus of countless more pages over the next 35 years.
Sure, you'll always get people who will continuously wheel out the, "it's late" and the, "it's expensive", even when this thing goes on operations and kicks a** like Bruce Lee (which I personally believe it will). You'll also always get those polarised the other way, who won't have a bad word said about their beloved jet. What the media says (JPO vs War is Boring) is simply accusation and rebuttal; to and fro; political tennis if you will. Public spats akin to this recent one rarely ever inform and normally create doubt on both sides; but then you can't really come out and properly inform the masses about the true capabilities of a highly classified and protected jet. What it has done is brought out the childish, puerile nature of certain individuals here and revealed them truly for what they are.
Nope - personally, I prefer to take the stance that F-35 will never silence its critics. Those involved who deservedly get to celebrate their F-35's success over the coming years shouldn't look back, other than to (re)learn some very valid and salient lessons for future acquisition (concurrency, requirements etc).
Happy 4th July to our US brothers and sisters and best of luck to the USMC who IOC with F-35B this month.
SF!