Originally Posted by
ORAC
The F-35 is starting to run out of friends.
I don't think so.
For further reading, see
The Pentagon Paradox which was an attempt to excoriate the F-18 program. The Hornet survived and has done well enough. I read that book a couple of years after it came out. An interesting read, in particular its critique of the acquisition process.
That process hasn't gotten much better over the years, as entwined as it is in politics and spreading out federal funds to many districts. F-35, IIRC, has production among contractors and subs in over 100 districts. I am pretty sure that this was a deliberate decision at least on the Congressional side. A little something for everyone, more or less -
everyone gets a share. (Milo Minderbender, Catch-22).