Well, to stick my nose in again here , imo maybe one of the reason LM has such a poor performance in this programme is this …they have little, and even lost, the “knowledge ” to built a front line aircraft in substantial numbers , on time , on budget , and on specified performance (especially important in these times)
In fact, looking at their past, other than F-80/F-94 and some F-104 (the bulk being built in Europe-and that aircraft having debatable performance anyway), what else have they built in numbers recently ? They havent had anything built 3rd and fourth gen wise. They’re very good at building high performance /high inovation limited series aircraft like SR-71, F-117 and whatever else they were working since ( classified), but other that that , what else ? They coped with some second line types like C-130, P-3 , S-3 or whatever, but other that that , they don’t seem to have any recent experience in building something like F-16 /F-18 etc. ( no, it’s not THEIRS the F-16, it’s GD’s ).
Anyway just a thought.
BTW i had no idea F-35 had canopy issues that limited it’s speed since recently…
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