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Living Space Studios | 1 years ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 Most modern aircraft are designed like shit anyway. The F35 barely takes off half the time and hasn't proven to be effective in testing let alone combat. The A10 Warthog on the other hand was designed over 50 years ago and is the most successful aircraft in the USAF's history. It's also the cheapest air program in the USAF's current list of programs and one of the few that hasn't failed.
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e81b5065 | 1 years ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 @Living Space Studios 

Almost everything the US military has done since the end of the cold war has been a product of the worst kind of decisionmaking and it will bite us all in the ass.

@Terry @𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐧𝐠
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Living Space Studios | 1 years ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 Most of the stuff during the cold war wasn't much better. This is, however, by design. Boondoggle aren't as profitable if you actually design a good product in an orderly fashion because then you don't have as many excuses to milk for cash.

If the F35 was functional than Lockheeb Martin would have to actually keep a product up to spec and would have to profit off of a margin. If your product is vaporware with no actual cost other than lying to your customers then the overhead is nothing and the margin is 100%. It's easier to make money on a lie people already believe than it is to make money on an actual product that can be negotiated down in price.