WTF-35: How the Joint Strike Fighter Got to Be Such a Mess
The story of the F-35, and what went wrong to put the Joint Strike Fighter so far over budget and behind schedule.
By Eric Tegler
Getty ImagesScott Barbour
Update, July 2018: Since this story was published in August 2016, things have started to look up for the F-35—sort of.
The first Joint Strike Fighters have been declared combat-capable. All three variants—the F-35A for the Air Force, F-35B for the Marines, and F-35C for the Navy, are dropping below the threshold of $100 million per plane as the fighter enters full production.
But it's not all good. The F-35 is still dogged by decisions like the one to build the plane using the strategy of "concurrency," or building the first planes before the experimental design was truly finalized. As of March, barely half the F-35s were flight-ready because many of the older ones needed to be brought up to spec.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a21957/wtf-35/
