Understand a few things here. This aircraft has been under development for over 15 years, to totally kill it now is foolish. Its one of the most advanced weapons system ever built. Problems on this program have been magnified thanks to the media who tends to demonize and large military defense program during peacetime. LMCO is not blameless with regards to some of the problems encountered, but that's to be expected during the development of any advanced weapons system. A larger piece of the pie that is missing is interference from "the customer." I've been in the aviation business full time 33 years. Most of that time was spent working on government contracts. I worked on the P-3, F-117A, B-2 and a few drone and several aircraft maintenance contracts and I could tell you that many of these programs suffered delays and cost over runs based on continual changes and interference by the customer, and most of the time this is never reported.
As Eric pointed out, the last large fighter procurement in the US also had its share of issues and cost concerns. I'd like someone to tell me that the F-15 turned out to be a lemon! But if this was 1977, you'd hear the same whine from the news media about the F-15 and F-16 as being said about the F-35 today - as a matter of fact, being old enough to remember when the F-15 and F-16 went into service, it almost like déjà vu.
The F-35B has issues but they can be overcome. Personally my only issue with the program is the cost, especially during these hard economic times. Be advised folks that the contractor is demonized because of the cost of these programs, but many if not all the time; the cost is driven by customer intervention and even agreed upon during negotiations.
For many years we hear stories about the "Military Industrial Complex" as if there's some Howard Hughes or Tony Stark (Iron Man) type character driving the US defense industry. In my experience, it's the exact opposite. It's the internal structure of the US DoD and the legions of civil servants who are continually attempting to justify their jobs who are creating a great part of the problem. Defense contracts are just there to give these folks what they are asking for!!!
A final note - remember the $600 toilet seat? I was actually involved in that debacle many years ago. In reality the US government was actually overcharged about $40 at the end of the day, but you never hear about that one. And you also never heard that the toilet seat AND cover were MIL-Spec manufactured and was constructed from a fire resistant type plastic that was similar in size and construction to a large plastic fender used on a sport's car. Go on Google and price what a front fender cost for say a corvette, then multiply by 2 that pays for the paperwork and contract people overseeing the whole thing! In the end I think the cost was justified.
