When the F-35 reaches 80 million dollars a copy US, then it could be called effective. But what about efficient in boardroom jargon. Both words are used together in a resounding blow broadsiding board room decision making. The F-35 becomes efficient when it its effects can be delivered at a nominal cost of $80 million per plane and having an operational up keep cost comparable to current fourth generation fighter types like the F-16.
The"radar coatings" are a big cost component. If the US military industrial complex finds a way to keep the F-35 invisible to radar without having to slobber copious amounts of radar absorbing coats of paint on the F-35's hull and wings after it flies in combat, then it will become efficient and a winner.
The F-35 may soon leave its fighter aircraft associates in the dust and its not from speed but from technological advancements. A super fast computer core here and there and pretty soon the fighter thinks at the speed of light and does its fighting with a "light saber" from Star Wars fame. It just has to get up to battle space first where the other "flying bricks" are found to play. The F-35 will become effective when it becomes efficient or is it the other way around?
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