The US DoD has done a LOT of high end projects as low risk. Taking Guam -- about when and how planned. The B-29s, intended to fly from Guam (Tinian, etc.) to

The US DoD has done a LOT of high end projects as low risk. Taking Guam -- about when and how planned. The B-29s, intended to fly from Guam (Tinian, etc.) to Japan, ready at about the same time. The A-bomb, right on time -- how 'bout that for a high risk project done on time. Rickover and the nuke powered submarines and then the missile firing submarines -- on time or nearly so. The F-35? I'm not so sure it's been a big mess -- I've heard two sides. On the good side, it should boil down to about $150 million per plane, everything including from start through the lifetime, and that is comparable with the ballpark $100 million or so that has long been the case in both the US and Europe. Right, on this topic, my collection of good references totally sucks -- I could be wrong. Sure, the F-35 is not so good at dogfighting, but, then, it's not supposed to be. The fighter is the F-22, and it is supposed to kill the enemy planes well beyond visual range and not do dogfighting, either, although it definitely has the performance for it. So, the idea is that early in a conflict, the F-22 and F-35 go in. The enemy can't see either one, from ground, from planes, via missiles. The F-22s take out the enemy fighters, and the F-35 takes out the early on, high value ground targets, e.g., radar and missile sites. Then can send in F-16s, F-15s, A-10s, F-18s, B-1's, B-52's, etc.