Not really. Large military procurement programs are always a gold-mine for the media, especially those involving new technologies (compared with design iteratio

Not really. Large military procurement programs are always a gold-mine for the media, especially those involving new technologies (compared with design iterations). Issues, bugs, production issues, etc are inevitable, and given the large price tag associated with a program like this, the stories are easy to write. The F-35 had it's fair share of these, but now that the program has matured, the incident rate is less than it's contemporaries. It currently has one of the best safety records of US fighter jets. But F-16s don't generate the safe media buzz when they crash. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.aerotime.aero/articles/are-new-fighter-jets-more-likely-to-crash-data/amp https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.aerotime.aero/articles/are-...