Then why the hell did we build the entire next generation around the F35? It's like we went all in on production to build carriers but our base is already full of zerglings.
Before we get around to building half the planned F35s, they'll cancel the program and move on to the next shiny new program. That's how every big defense project works.
Here's how it works. You start out with a giant estimate, for 3,000 planes. That giant estimate is mostly caused by the lifetime cost of maintaining 3k planes. As the years roll by, you start chopping production numbers off, while trying to get some cost inflation per unit somewhere. You end up spending 1/3 less, for 1/2 the planes in the end. 20 years after the first F35 flight, you've moved on to the next big thing. Conveniently justified by an inevitable, possibly dramatic, change in what the military needs.
It's a taxpayer subsidy to the military-industrial complex. That some of that money ends up in the pockets of workers is a sad reality that cannot yet be avoided, but it's hardly "the reason".
That would imply a level of care that is completely incompatible with a lot of things. Take the use of low-IQ troops in Vietnam:
If "mosaic warfare" actually becomes a thing then the F-35 is actually pretty well suited to participate in it. At least better than legacy platforms which are increasingly difficult to upgrade.
