Development of the Joint Strike Fighter, as it is also known, has fallen so far behind schedule, with huge cost overruns, the defense secretary ordered the firing of the F-35 program manager.
The risk in Gates’ decision is hammered home by this stark fact: the Air Force estimates it could be short 800 fighter-bombers by 2024. Levin called it “a shortfall that’s large enough that if it were realized could cause us to tie up aircraft carriers at the pier for lack of aircraft to send with them.
