"Hey remember McNamara's crazy attempt at third gen fighter-bomber commonality that made a super high tech naval failure and a somewhat successful yet buggy and dangerous airforce bomber? Well let's do it again but this time add ridiculous marine stovl requirements! Yeah the best electronic suite money can buy combined to fit into an angular box with wings!"
Actually from all the madness they did truly make the best stovl fighter ever. Boy was it expensive, though. It is a stealthy box with wings and it is only saved by the incredible tech inside of it. Problem is even the various powerful electronics are still buggy as hell. Of course engineers have done some amazing work trying to fix so many problems and it is a force to be reckoned with but imo it is ultimately a failure of corporate greed and narrow minded ideology. They should have built one common omnirole stealth fighter for navy and airforce and made a completely different stovl fighter for the marines.
Actually from all the madness they did truly make the best stovl fighter ever. Boy was it expensive, though. It is a stealthy box with wings and it is only saved by the incredible tech inside of it. Problem is even the various powerful electronics are still buggy as hell. Of course engineers have done some amazing work trying to fix so many problems and it is a force to be reckoned with but imo it is ultimately a failure of corporate greed and narrow minded ideology. They should have built one common omnirole stealth fighter for navy and airforce and made a completely different stovl fighter for the marines.