F-35C has a mission capable rate of 5% according to the WARZONE!

via WZ

As of June 2018, Lockheed Martin had delivered 75 F-35Bs to all customers, the vast majority of which went to the Marines. Even if the service had received all of these planes, it would have had less than dozen jets fully mission ready in December 2018, more than three years after officially declaring the type operational.

The figures for the F-35C are far worse. For more than two years, the Navy has been unable to even get the full mission capable rate about 20 percent. As of December 2017, not a single one of the service's jets met that standard at any given time. A year later, the rate was still in the single digits. With just 28 C models in total, this would have meant just around one of the stealthy aircraft was ever fully ready to go, on average, for at least 12 months.

Story here. 

The Dam has broken on F-35 news.

I don't know what's happened but the stories are coming quick, fast and in a hurry with regard to its readiness/maintenance/cost of ops.

If I were to guess this is a gambit by the Pentagon.  Someone has the long knives out for that airplane and patience is now gone.

Funny how budget reality sharpens the senses and pushes away happy talk.