Is the F-35 worth it?

[unhappycamper]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/f-35-joint-strike-fighter-60-minutes/



Is the F-35 worth it?
David Martin
2014 Feb 16

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is the Pentagon's newest warplane and its most expensive weapons system ever -- nearly $400 billion to buy 2,400 aircraft. To put that in perspective, that’s about twice as much as it cost to put a man on the moon -- this at a time when the White House and Congress are fighting over ways to reduce the federal deficit and cuts in defense spending are forcing the Pentagon to shrink the size of the military.

The Air Force, Navy and Marines are all counting on the F-35 to replace the war planes they’re flying today. If it performs as advertised, the F-35 will enable U.S. pilots to control the skies in any future conflict against the likes of China or Russia. But the F-35 has not performed as advertised. It's seven years behind schedule and $163 billion over budget, or as the man in charge of the F-35 told us, "basically the program ran itself off the rails."

~snip~

And an exchange about the half million dollar brain bucket:

David Martin: How much does it cost?

Chris Bogdan: The helmet itself plus the computer system that is used to make the helmet work is more than a half million dollars.

[Deep13]

1. Doesn't seem like it. nt