The most important statement about the F-35 by a defense official...

Former SecAF Deborah Lee James made this statement July 30, 2015...

“The biggest lesson I have learned from the F-35 is never again should we be flying an aircraft while we’re building it...”

She went on to say...

 “people believed we could go faster, cheaper, better” by designing and building the F-35 concurrently, but that the strategy “has not worked as well as we hoped and that’s probably the understatement of the day.”
“It has taken us too long, it has cost us way more money than we ever imagined possible” over the course of its 15-year development, she added.

No matter what side of the fence you're on with regard to the F-35, this statement should chill your bones.

This is the most important statement about the plane ever made by a defense official and tell us one other thing.

Even if they're able to SOMEHOW turn shit into sugar we're still screwed.  It took too long, cost too much and leadership lacked the moral courage to bail on the project when it could have saved the taxpayer untold billions of dollars and our air superiority lead.

Anything, anyone says after her statement is just window dressing.

The damage done to the US and our allies is already baked into the cake. There is no way to actually recover.  Time and money has been squandered...and you just can't make that up.