Oh boy I'm very excited for a well articulated thread full of people who know about modern jet fighter combat and selection rather than a bunch of IT people who get everything they know from clickbait sites that cite RT contributors.
/flamebait
To contribute something productive: I'm actually often pleasantly surprised how non-IT people with relevant experience often show up on HN comment threads.
/s
"The number of major F-35 flaws is shrinking, but the Pentagon is keeping details of the problems under wraps" - https://www.defensenews.com/smr/hidden-troubles-f35/2021/07/...
"“Details of [deficiencies] — even unclassified [deficiencies] — are not publicly releasable because the information is operationally sensitive, and its release could be detrimental to U.S. and international war fighters operating F-35s worldwide,”... Seal noted that all remaining critical deficiencies are classified as category 1B issues, which represent a “critical impact on mission readiness.” The more serious category 1A problems indicate a risk to the operator’s life..."
"...In June 2019, Defense News published an investigation into the F-35 that detailed all 13 category 1 deficiencies on the books at the time — the first and only time a full list of F-35 critical deficiencies has been publicly released."
Since Finland selection was done way before, how many of these were disclosed to them?
It's very typical of tech people to think we know more than domain experts.
A hint they got from the world of software development clearly... :-)
"...At extremely high altitudes, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps’ versions of the F-35 jet can only fly at supersonic speeds for short bursts of time before there is a risk of structural damage and loss of stealth capability, a problem that may make it impossible for the Navy’s F-35C to conduct supersonic intercepts...
The Defense Department does not intend to field a fix for the problem, which influences not only the F-35’s airframe and the low-observable coating that keeps it stealthy, but also the myriad antennas located on the back of the plane that are currently vulnerable to damage, according to documents exclusively obtained by Defense News...
...The F-35 Joint Program Office has classified the issues for the "B" and "C" models as separate category 1 deficiencies, indicating in one document that the problem presents a challenge to accomplishing one of the key missions of the fighter jet..."
[1] - https://www.defensenews.com/air/2019/06/12/supersonic-speeds...
Those two countries do not do carrier ops, why would they care about this at all?
Or is it a NATO member that’s anti-NATO? But in that case I can’t imagine that the government provides a lot of anti-NATO propaganda…
I would build F35 over the weekend in Rust.