By James R. Holmes
Interservice and multi-national rivalries could undermine the Joint Strike Fighter. Then again, we may never know.
Air-power heretic Rob Farley wonders whether the F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter will rule the skies. Heck, I dunno. The F-35 finds itself in the same limbo inhabited by platforms like the littoral combat ship, the DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer, and the CVN-78Ford-class aircraft carrier. Proponents have advanced ambitious if not extravagant claims on each program’s behalf. Hardware and crews must now deliver on their promise. Or not.
To make matters more perplexing, we may never know for sure whether these platforms deserve their hype. Combat is the ultimate arbiter of how a weapon system performs in specific tactical settings in concert with other systems. While the strategic competitions ringing Asia may turn hot, applying this harsh standard, they may not. A prolonged strategic competition like the Cold War leaves questions about real-world battle performance largely conjectural — and can prompt even expert commentators to infer conclusions that the historical record may not fully justify.
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