Winging It Think Tank Onion Skin Papeer: MIC Report. Part II:

Having a second take regarding MIC or AKA: Military Industrial Complex only addresses the aviation segment, and more specifically The F-35 program. The naysayers are legion concerning the Lightning II. It’s versions A, B, C have ginormous problems calling for its demise. The naysayers are calling for the nuclear option for the programs and demand stopping it in its tracks. My own instincts tell me with even the evidence at hand the F-35 will reach its promise, and doesn’t have to go Mach 2.5 to be effective.

The F-35 idea was not based on traditional emphasis for speed or maneuverability during dogfights, it was the sum of all its parts overwhelming any potential advisory. Those who want sharper turns and faster accelerations have already missed the point for the F-35 concept. Those who cite constant programing failures or its flawed system alignments have also a dependency with regard for instant gratification.

What is behind all this mess? The number one issue is the F-35 complexity of concept. It has a Star Wars theme on a Wright Brothers tradition calling for its scrapping. However, the reality is somewhere in between models A, B, C. The Marines needed something better than the Harrier and they got it first. The Air Force needed it in numbers immediately, and that too has started the production rollout in numbers, but not all was matured by the process as they needed a new term for the press, and it became concurrency. The F-35 will have the latest and best version in the next 35 years, hence the name F-35.

The Navy has to populate the decks of the Gerald R Ford CVN 78, with the version F-35C, so they are waiting for those Block III’s in the developmental concurrent build process while the Ford goes through its yearlong trial pacing, and hopefully joining up with an updated F-35C by 2017. A second carrier following the "Ford" is a forthcoming as CVN 79 in several more years. Time has been made for the F-35C. The Marines have its Harrier replacement and awaits maturation for its F-35B in active duty while it can/will use this supersonic jump jet from off its Marine Expeditionary Forces fleet decks and bases. The Marines have gained a fantastic advantage with an averaged version for the F-35. This ever so complex aircraft is just average at this time. Without ever changing wings, fuselage or any other aerodynamic points, miraculous change will come from within by morphing the F-35 into a thirty year ahead of its time warfighter.

Those F-35 glitches are causing more of a perception problem for the F-35 than having a real "never will be able to resolve the F-35 problem", thus the trashing of the program is demanded. The testing regimen has eliminated hundreds of to-do fixes for the complex fighter. 

If this fighter rolled out problem free in 2010, then the suspicion becomes, then the F-35 must of fallen short of becoming a superior warfighter. Or if the F-35 resembles a continuous series of problems making and meeting its overarching goals, then they have a Superior program always improving. 

The F-35 is not beyond engineering capabilities but well within those capabilities, but it becomes a matter of the longtime process of making the most complex fighter ever built.The F-22, is a very fast and stealthy fighter, laid down the proven mantel the F-35 has taken up. Everything learned from the former is exponential for the latter. 

The F-22 has proven to be unmatched in the world today and to come for the next many years. The F-35 has its reduced speed for long range strike abilities the F-22 can’t match. The F-35 is too tricky to catch and defeat at any speed. The advanced architecture allows an advancement to the aircraft without changing its stealth design or its natural frame avionics. It just becomes better and better as it ages. It’s unfortunate others has missed this point and want to kill it. Even a baby at birth isn’t ready to run in the Olympics.

Part I Link: