And of course we the taxpaying public are left wondering whether our money is going to be spent on a white elephant platform or not. And again of course the politicians will play politics on the issue rather than making sure they are spending wisely.
I frankly don't care either way on the issue of the capability of the aircraft itself, only as to whether our government is going to spend this sort of money that they make sure enough due diligence is done to prevent mistakes.
Ironically the platform the F-35 is planned to replace the F-111 suffered terribly from criticisms of it's design when we first purchased them in the early 1960's and 1970's due to some unfortunate incidents early its life.
http://www.raaf.gov.au/raafmuseum/re...series3/A8.htm