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The short answer is that you've been misinformed. Many of the criticisms of the F-35 originate from one or many of the following: * Manufacturers of competing

The short answer is that you've been misinformed. Many of the criticisms of the F-35 originate from one or many of the following: * Manufacturers of competing fighter jets. If enough people think the F-35 is terrible, they might vote for politicians who will nix F-35 procurement and maybe buy their plane instead. These often take the form of slick PR hits where e.g. the CBC will cite Boeing as an "expert source" about why Boeing's Super Hornet is a better choice than the F-35 for the Canadian air force. * Russian state media, which wants to further their own propaganda narrative. * Pierre Sprey, who has notoriously overstated the extent of his expertise and his involvement with US aircraft development in the past, and has convinced unwitting journalists (including the aforementioned Russian state media) to cite him. A lot of things have changed over the past ten years: Pierre Sprey passed away, Boeing's credibility has taken a massive hit in recent years for a number of reasons, and the Russians are invading Ukraine which makes them pretty unpopular and Westerners much less willing to take RT and the like at face value. Meanwhile, the F-35 is in service and seems to be relatively successful so far.

pixodaros 4y ago
Confident strangers on the Internet are not worth much. Good articles, with references, which go into competing points of view and explain the problems with them, are worth a lot. Like I said, that Sprey person seems like a blowhard who got attention in the USA, I never heard of him before some YouTube videos in the past few months. The critics I remember were war reporters such as David Axe and IT specialists such as Marcus Ranum.
- philwelch 4y ago
  > The critics I remember were war reporters such as David Axe and IT specialists such as Marcus Ranum. And by what standard did you find them credible when it comes to evaluating fighter jets? It seems like you aren’t applying a consistent standard to ”confident strangers on the Internet”, which is all those guys seem to be. The truth is, anyone with the qualifications and information necessary to make a proper evaluation already works for a military and isn’t allowed to say much.
  - pixodaros 4y ago
    I got to know and trust Ranum and Axe on the specific areas of expertise of IT projects and contemporary military affairs for years (have not heard much from them since then). You, on the other hand, are a stranger on the Internet. I live in a democracy, so its my duty to form an opinion about large controversial purchases my government proposes to make. Of course my opinion on most of them can't be an expert opinion, but it can be at least as good as my representatives'.
    - philwelch 4y ago
      > I got to know and trust Ranum and Axe on the specific areas of expertise of IT projects and contemporary military affairs for years Neither of them have the qualifications to evaluate fighter jets. In any case…. Here’s a pretty comprehensive compilation of well-cited information from 2014 you can pore through: https://comprehensiveinformation.wordpress.com/ https://comprehensiveinformation.wordpress.com/ And here’s a copy of a story originally published by Air & Space Magazine in 2019 with quotes from F-35 pilots: https://www.jsfsim.nl/f-35/f-35-what-the-pilots-say/ https://www.jsfsim.nl/f-35/f-35-what-the-pilots-say/
      - t43562 4y ago
        There's nothing you can really trust. Everyone has some interest or other. Ontop of that the things people consider essential don't always turn out to merit the emphasis (Norden bombsight eg?) I think there's historical evidence that the US used bribery to get aircraft sold in the distant past and no doubt other countries have too so it would be odd to think that political and other pressures are now suddenly non-existent because we're better human beings than before. You cannot really even trust pilots because they will want Raybans and iPhones even when the cheaper generic sunglasses and phones do the job. They are only the top of the pyramid of people that have to look after the system.
        philwelch 4y ago
        > There's nothing you can really trust. Everyone has some interest or other. I completely agree.

pixodaros 4y ago

Confident strangers on the Internet are not worth much. Good articles, with references, which go into competing points of view and explain the problems with them, are worth a lot. Like I said, that Sprey person seems like a blowhard who got attention in the USA, I never heard of him before some YouTube videos in the past few months. The critics I remember were war reporters such as David Axe and IT specialists such as Marcus Ranum.

philwelch 4y ago
> The critics I remember were war reporters such as David Axe and IT specialists such as Marcus Ranum. And by what standard did you find them credible when it comes to evaluating fighter jets? It seems like you aren’t applying a consistent standard to ”confident strangers on the Internet”, which is all those guys seem to be. The truth is, anyone with the qualifications and information necessary to make a proper evaluation already works for a military and isn’t allowed to say much.
- pixodaros 4y ago
  I got to know and trust Ranum and Axe on the specific areas of expertise of IT projects and contemporary military affairs for years (have not heard much from them since then). You, on the other hand, are a stranger on the Internet. I live in a democracy, so its my duty to form an opinion about large controversial purchases my government proposes to make. Of course my opinion on most of them can't be an expert opinion, but it can be at least as good as my representatives'.
  - philwelch 4y ago
    > I got to know and trust Ranum and Axe on the specific areas of expertise of IT projects and contemporary military affairs for years Neither of them have the qualifications to evaluate fighter jets. In any case…. Here’s a pretty comprehensive compilation of well-cited information from 2014 you can pore through: https://comprehensiveinformation.wordpress.com/ https://comprehensiveinformation.wordpress.com/ And here’s a copy of a story originally published by Air & Space Magazine in 2019 with quotes from F-35 pilots: https://www.jsfsim.nl/f-35/f-35-what-the-pilots-say/ https://www.jsfsim.nl/f-35/f-35-what-the-pilots-say/
    - t43562 4y ago
      There's nothing you can really trust. Everyone has some interest or other. Ontop of that the things people consider essential don't always turn out to merit the emphasis (Norden bombsight eg?) I think there's historical evidence that the US used bribery to get aircraft sold in the distant past and no doubt other countries have too so it would be odd to think that political and other pressures are now suddenly non-existent because we're better human beings than before. You cannot really even trust pilots because they will want Raybans and iPhones even when the cheaper generic sunglasses and phones do the job. They are only the top of the pyramid of people that have to look after the system.
      - philwelch 4y ago
        > There's nothing you can really trust. Everyone has some interest or other. I completely agree.