I promise you, gr, that I have not and will not set out to wilfully deceive. That's a dangerous game. That said, you'll appreciate as a military or ex-military guy that not saying everything or being exact isn't deceitful but a necessity. As for the whole defamation that goes on here...well, I couldn't agree more with Lone's statement. We'd get far more out of civilised debate and discussion. Mostly it erupts or spirals downward quickly because the same (yes, the SAME) people take huge offence at information they neither recognise nor agree (or want to agree) with, rather than casually asking for a source or explanation of their PoV. Their response goes from 0 to 600kts in a heartbeat instead of staying appropriate.
That gets people's backs up and it's a vicious circle.
Anyway, you're absolutely entitled to know as a taxpayer what you're getting. You're getting the most brutally honest test reports ever seen in public that detail the deficiencies in a late, expensive jet. Those reports massage a narrative of negativity which fuels one side of the F-35 demograph. What you don't get is verbal, private accounts of the jet and mission systems and how mind blowing it is. How it isn't like the multitude of F-16 vs F-35 articles. But that's the way it is mate. There are issues but they're being worked by amazing people, and as quickly as they can.