It has always been like that in aviation, at least with large programs. See the P51, P47, F-86, F100, F101…. Either Halloween has forgotten what a successful program can be or if he really makes a discovery out of this, I will suggest him to spend more time studying history and less nitpicking F35’s enormes scandales

Excerpt from Wikipedia on the Phantom F-4 history, a largely (successful) comparable program that share IMO many similarities:

A total of 45 F-4As were built and none saw combat and most ended up as test or training aircraft .[23] The USN and USMC received the first definitive Phantom, the F-4B which was equipped with the Westinghouse APQ-72 radar (pulse only), a Texas Instruments AAA-4 Infra-red search and track pod under the nose, an AN/AJB-3 bombing system and powered by J79-GE-8,-8A and -8B engines of 10,900 lbf (48.5 kN) dry and 16,950 lbf (75.4 kN) afterburner (reheat) with the first flight on 25 March 1961. 649 F-4Bs were built with deliveries beginning in 1961 and VF-121 Pacemakers receiving the first examples at NAS Miramar.[23]
The F-4J had improved air-to-air and ground-attack capability; deliveries begun in 1966 and ended in 1972 with 522 built.[24] It was equipped with J79-GE-10 engines with 17,844 lbf (79.374 kN) thrust, the Westinghouse AN/AWG-10 Fire Control System (making the F-4J the first fighter in the world with operational look-down/shoot-down capability),[25] a new integrated missile control system and the AN/AJB-7 bombing system for expanded ground attack capability.[26]
The F-4N (updated F-4Bs) with smokeless engines and F-4J aerodynamic improvements started in 1972 under a U.S. Navy-initiated refurbishment program called “Project Bee Line”[27] with 228 converted by 1978.

[and so on and so on and so on… ]

F4B’s share a large burden of the number of sorties generated during Vietnam

[ATTACH=CONFIG]255852[/ATTACH]
This is an F4B!

And the vibrant call to their “Constitutional rights” was not?

Well, at least, UK did express some limitations.

In the final report, p24:

All French civil radars are compliant with Mode-S EHS, but in March 2015, Mode-S
downlinked parameters were not yet shown on French controllers’ stations.
The changes of selected altitude during the Düsseldorf to Barcelona flight
(see paragraph 1.11.4) and the accident flight were therefore not displayed to the air
traffic controllers in France.

The report also denied that the plane was intercepted before the crash had occurred (p25):

At 9 h 48, a fighter jet from the French Air Force took off from the military airbase of
Orange, after having been ordered to do so by the national centre of aerial operations
at 9 h 41. The military plane flew over the vicinity of the accident site at 10 h 01. [time of crash was 9:41]

The FDR was localized in a totally different area than both the CVR and QAR (p29):

[ATTACH=CONFIG]255793[/ATTACH]©BEA

Only the BEA has knowledge of a severe psychiatric disorder (p33) :

All the AMEs from the Lufthansa AeMC who examined the co-pilot for the revalidations
of the class 1 medical certificate were aware of the waiver that the co-pilot had.
They all assessed his psychological and psychiatrist fitness through observation of
behaviour and discussions. None of the responses provided by the co-pilot raised any
concern among the AMEs about a mood, neurotic, personality, mental or behavioural
disorder that would have required further psychiatric evaluation

When

[…] However, the majority of the team of experts
consulted by the BEA agreed that the limited medical information available may be
consistent with the co-pilot having suffered from a psychotic depressive episode that
started in December 2014, which lasted until the day of the accident. Other forms of
mental ill-health cannot be excluded and a personality disorder is also a possibility.

For God Sake, what is this ?!! Freaky.

Report accessible here in PDF (English language)i

UK DragonFire Laser system:

How U.S. F-15E Drone Shoot-Down Changed Air Game In Syria

[…] Renken could not shoot. He could see two Su-27 Flankers to the north, within range, close enough that he could see their Russian insignia. Renken was concerned the Russian pilots could mistake a shot at the drone for a shot at them.
“We were positive that they were air-to-air-missile configured,” he says. “If they wanted to tangle, they were pretty capable.”
Renken waited a few minutes as the UAV flew south, away from the Flankers. Then he maneuvered his Strike Eagle to the west of the drone, positioning for a shot that would not pose a threat to the Russian fighters.

Reader comment (jeffrey.patton…. ):

The Dirt Eagle has a 2deg look up gun, coupled with a non maneuvering slow speed target, it is a very difficult shot. Coupled with having to close to within very close range, the chances of eating some of the debris from the target is high. He was right to use an AAM.

It might also have to do with not switching the radar on. At no time in the published interview did the pilot comment ranges with exactitude something that could be interpreted as unusual. Passive mode of an “old 120C” might have been deemed less sensitive or having the radar switched-off less agressive. [WildAssumptions=OFF]

Source:
AviationWeek.com

Sikorsky was tantalizingly close to achieving its goal of exceeding 220 kt

Sikorsky was tantalizingly close to achieving its goal of exceeding 220 kt. with the S-97 Raider coaxial-rotor helicopter when the prototype made a hard landing on Aug. 2, after experiencing flight control problems. […] The incident at Sikorsky’s development flight center in West Palm Beach, Florida, came as the 6,000-lb. Raider was taxiing out to begin its 15th test flight, with the target of achieving 180 kt.—its highest speed yet. The goal of exceeding 220 kt. was planned for the next flight, its 16th. Achieving that objective will now have to wait until after the second prototype is completed and flown in 2018.

Source:
AviationWeek.com

maybe the offer is to provide a clean exit to the bronco that has become the Canadian procurement process. that way, they can find in the rusty Australian classical Hornet a cheap buy. Boeing will even gain better on the latter (new wing, new center fuselage section, new flight computer new radar, new TFT, new… )…