USAF putting the brakes on F-35 ramp up.

via Aviation Week

The U.S. Air Force has decided to buy Lockheed Martin’s F-35 more slowly than planned because the program still has not completed several critical milestones and the service is concerned about snowballing retrofit costs, 

The rest is behind a paywall.

So there you have it.  The USAF basically admitted that EVERY JET THEY'VE BOUGHT will need to be retrofit and they're on the hook to do it.

So to save costs they're buying fewer.

Which is why our allies are buying slowly.  They don't want to rush things and get stuck with expensive jets that need to be redone either.

The only question I have is WHAT THE HELL IS NELLER AND THE USMC THINKING!!!!

They're not saving a dime and are putting jets that aren't capable in the field now.  To get them up to speed means an expensive retrofit in the future.  That does NOT sound like the fiscally responsible service that I was taught the Marine Corps claimed to be!  It's hardly the bargain for the country that every Commandant from Conway back always said it was!

As we've discussed they have two years of fat budgets and then the chances of things going back to sequestration increase.  Which means that these mistake jets might end up being parts bins in the future (assuming its found that upgrading them isn't cost effective).

The F-35. The HIV of the combat aviation world.  It's gonna make you sick, you just hope it does turn into full blown AIDS and kills ya.