We had a pretty epic discussion on here about that yesterday, in fact. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10250599 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=102505

We had a pretty epic discussion on here about that yesterday, in fact. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10250599 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10250599 But the reason the Pentagon didn't purchase was not because of the F-35, but because Congress wouldn't let them defund the A-10, which the A-29 replaces. DoD isn't going to pay for two CAS/COIN aircraft, so the A-10 remains.