The F35 is a dog and I suspect as a Brit we are going to get stuck with the thing when everyone else pulls out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAM-87_Skybolt
Edit: Even more like the fantastic idea to cancel the wonderful TSR-2 in favour of the F-111 - a decision which was then cancelled later on:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAC_TSR-2
""All modern aircraft have four dimensions: span, length, height and politics. TSR-2 simply got the first three right."
Still the only sovereign nation to give up satellite launching capability after acquiring it...
"Prior to the cancellation of Black Arrow, NASA had offered to launch British payloads for free; however, this offer was withdrawn following the decision to cancel Black Arrow."
Always liked that little bit of history :).
Nominal peacetime is when the bureaucrats try to save money with a single weapon system that "can do everything" ... but it seldom does more than one thing well. The M14 rifle is another '50s example.
Clueless German higher-ups were asking that every aircraft also be able to dive-bomb, causing design compromises and delays. Yes, they even did that with their revolutionary jet aircraft! (The fighter and the high speed bomber!)
At a certain point in the war, the utility of the fighter-bomber was very well established, the Germans even had their own name for it, Jäger-Bomber I think it was, or Jabo. (I'd recommend the Wikipedia article, but it claims the P-38 was a poor fighter (!!!)).
In general Nazi procurement was extremely subpar at this level. One might think Arthur C. Clarke's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superiority_(short_story) was based on them.
Dive bomb. There were attempts to get both the Me-262 and the Arado bomber to do this!
If you're near Caloundra they have an open cockpit weekend coming up.
They have it half right purchasing the Boeing P-8A Poseidon and evaluating Reaper drones.
But like the UK we don't need aircraft carriers, but it seems that's what Tony now wants the new Canberra class ships to be.
The Littoral Combat Ship is the exact same trick being played right now! It's pretty much useless as a naval war fighting platform against a serious enemy, but some thin claims that it's a multi-mission platform got it the go-ahead.
(Not a weapons expert by any means. So please correct me if I'm wrong)
Every opposition government ever opposes whatever large military procurement is proposed: It's easy to find negatives, and there is no real downside to be negative. Occasionally the rhetoric can get so over the top that it needs action (see the Liberals cancelling the EH-101, and then having to effective re-order it at a much higher price tag for less hardware), but generally it just quietly continues.
And the overwhelming reason Canada wants the F-35 has little to do with the aircraft, and everything to do with manufacturing partnership agreements that would see many billions of that order going to facilities in Canada, invigorating the aerospace industry.
Not saying it's a good purchase, because it isn't, but I wouldn't pin it on the Conservatives.