The tragic comedy of the whole thing is that, while there's always some pork-slinging going on, at the outset of the program, the whole idea of a Joint Strike Fighter program was cost savings. On the surface, it was a competent economic thought: Build a bunch of variations on the same jet to achieve better overall economy across all military branches.

I really believe the people making that decision thought they would succeed. But since the premise proved incorrect, it looks like program continues to run entirely on a combination of addictions: Escalation of commitment and pork politics.