Thats true,, aircraft rollouts have traditionally had bugs. But that was when we built planes from drawings with timeframes ranging from 6 months to 2 years.
The F-35 has been in one sort of development or another for almost 20 years.
The thing is a moonpig, that cannot outrun an F-16 or F-15.
It carries smaller loads, shorter distances. It carries fewer weapons. It is FAR slower than offerings from Europe and Russia. It’s supposedly better than average in stealth and computers,, but any advantages there gave us a few years at best. The rest of the world is living and breathing electronics and programming.
This thing is a monument to political procurement and it’s hard to believe this is the best our country can roll out.
It was always a weak sister,,,justified by the F-22s existence. Of course,, we are left with this as the main event.
Carriers with nothing but these (assuming they ever make the stealth tailhook work) are going to have less power projection than our carriers have ever fielded in the modern era.
Im waiting for the “D” model,,hoping they put a bubble canopy on it. They say that improvement worked well on Mustangs and Spitfires.
You stick to SMEAC and leave tactical aviation to those in the know.