The Case for the F-35
To me, one thing that we should consider is that the F-35 was developed at a time when it wasn&#x27;t really clear what the purpose and enemy is going to be - but the US couldn&#x27;t afford to wait until that becomes clear.<p>Prior to F-35, it was fairly simple: Warsaw Pact and proxy wars. But for the JSF, its beginnings are around&#x2F;just after the end of the Cold War. It was maybe not quite aimed at Russia (but who knows). Then the Afghanistan and Iraq wars come around, plus air interventions in Libya and Syria, which were quite unique in how uncontested the US air power was.<p>Re-rise of Russian aggression in NATO sphere of interest and the rise of China are really last 10 years or so.<p>I&#x27;m sure my view is naive, and people who do this for a living had a clearer vision of what the F-35 had to contend with, but it&#x27;s not easy to design a weapon that&#x27;s effective against <i>everything</i> that&#x27;s also kind of <i>unknown</i>.<p>For example, it now appears like Russian military hardware is much worse than advertised and the real adversary in terms of technological sophistication is China. But how clear was it throughout this programme? Maybe some other design would have been more cost-effective against China in particular.<p>Similarly, it may yet turn out that the design assumption are right. Recent war in Ukraine changed a lot of assumptions, for example about anti air defences. These had become kind of obsolete in NATOs views and largely dismantled without replacement, under the assumption that fighter jets will be better suited to that. Now, it seems, all NATO members are buying whatever is available in that space.