A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the F-35 Store
The F-35 Store is over in a seldom seen corner of the Pentagon and if it was a vegetable, it would be broccoli. No one likes broccoli and yet it exists. The same can be said for the F-35 fighter jet, presumed replacement for the F-16 and the most expensive boondoggle in military history.
It all began a very long time ago
The world was a simpler place then.
The F-16 fighter jet was developed in the mid 1970s. You filled it with jet fuel, hit the starter-button and it was ready to fly. Once off the ground, it flew at twice the speed of sound, could carry 15 different bombs, including two nuclear weapons and was able to shoot down enemy aircraft with five varieties of air-to-air missiles. Even on a bad-hair-day it could knock out ground targets with four different air-to-ground missiles that included two separate flavors of anti-ship missiles.
The F-16 was a sweetheart but the military, bless their little mid-life crises, yearned for a trophy wife.
Trophy wives are very, very expensive
As th…