For another source on the woes bedeviling the F-35, check out this article from Vanity Fair: http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2013/09/joint-strike-fighter-lo

For another source on the woes bedeviling the F-35, check out this article from Vanity Fair: http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2013/09/joint-strike-fighter-lockheed-martin http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2013/09/joint-strike-figh... Some of the highlights include: -DoD skimped on requirements and instead relied on the contractor to fill in the gaps. This led to the plane being designed without protection from lightning strikes which means it can't currently fly in bad weather -The plane was supposed to have 70 percent parts commonality between variants. It is now 25 percent -The plane couldn't do supersonic flight because Lockheed Martin didn't test the stealth coatings at the higher temperatures generated in supersonic flight -The DoD let Lockheed Martin skip a lot of real world testing in favor of computer modeling