The F-35 is designed to replace a long list of planes, doing jobs from dogfights to attacking ground targets and reconnaissance. It'll let the U.S. fight diverse conflicts in an unpredictable world, coordinating with allies, said O'Bryan, a former Navy pilot. "The same airplanes we used in (1991's) Operation Desert Storm, we're still using today," he said. "We've put some miles on them."
But the plane's a budget-buster, said Todd Harrison, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment.
Last fall, the center published results of a conference in which seven teams of experts pondered how to cut defense by 30%. Every team cut the F-35 budget by at least a quarter, while one proposed killing the program, Harrison said.
"It's not necessarily that they wanted to," Harrison said. "It's the largest program in the DOD. That alone makes them a target."