For this year’s Thanksgiving Day feature, The Cipher Brief revisits its coverage of the innovation and procurement challenges behind the F-35 Lighting II. As production ramps up and the U.S. and its coalition partners take delivery, we reexamine what lessons can be learned from the procurement process and whether or not the qualitative advantage of the F-35 is something to be thankful for.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was supposed to be an affordable plane for the Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy. Instead, it has become the ultimate case study of the Pentagon’s failed acquisition system—it is years behind schedule and nearly double the initial cost estimates.
“The Cipher Brief has become the most popular outlet for former intelligence officers; no media outlet is even a close second to The Cipher Brief in terms of the number of articles published by formers.” —Sept. 2018, Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 62
Access all of The Cipher Brief’s national security-focused expert insight by becoming a Cipher Brief Subscriber+ Member.
Subscriber+