Today's F-35As Not Worth Including in High-End War Games

The F35 is the result of a very dumb decision to do two big things at the same time in the same vehicle:

1 - build a new multi role airplane (that itself was probably overly complex)

2 - build a new networked electronics infrastructure for the airborne military (Air Force, Navy, & Marines)

Car makers figured out not to do this years ago when they started coming out with a new engine before updating the rest of the car. It minimized the number of changes in any given mode year to a level that was manageable and quality increased.

The military should have taken that route and developed these two separately.

>After much loss of life and equipment, the U.S. military was able to prevent a total takeover of Taiwan by confining Chinese forces to a single area.

That is the problem - large loss of life within a short sustained period does not bode well for US public support today.

The lopsided Iraqi war which only resulted in 214 coalition casualties during the 30 day invasion phase would not be a repeat.

Hope we never find out.