Why the F-35 Program Needs to Be Cancelled
Task and Purpose, Matthew Gjertsen
Security, Americas
A big mistake?
The F-35 Lightning II, otherwise known as the Joint Strike Fighter, has a lot of critics and a lot of supporters. To cut through the debate currently being waged on the aircraft it is important to point out four facts about the situation the Department of Defense finds itself in: The F-35 is behind schedule and over-budget; it isn’t delivering the capabilities the military needs; the world is vastly different from the one in which the F-35 was envisioned; and fourth and most importantly, the DoD has canceled, or terminated early, massive weapons programs in the past for similar reasons.
Focusing on the final fact is most important for this debate. The F-22, the Army’s Comanche helicopter, and the Navy’s Seawolf submarine are all case studies of programs that the military invested in, but ultimately canceled despite heavy industry opposition and sometimes great technical results.
(Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in 2015.)
Though there are been many critiques of the troubled F-35, few leave little hope for anything being done because the program has long been dubbed “too big to cancel.” To date, the cost of building the aircraft has been projected at $400 billion spread across 11 countries and 46 states, with a lifetime cost of up to $1.5 trillion (See Business Insider’s great infographic breaking down these costs by states and countries).
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