The technical problems are par for the course. What's different about the F-35 is cost - they failed in the quest to be the new F-16 to the F-22's F-15. For d

The technical problems are par for the course. What's different about the F-35 is cost - they failed in the quest to be the new F-16 to the F-22's F-15. For decades the US has pursued a high-low strategy, meaning a small number of very expensive, very high performance aircraft and a large number of inexpensive (but still good) aircraft. Where the F-35 went off the rails is on the "inexpensive" part. We would have been better off buying more F-22s for air superiority and keeping the F-16 for strike missions.