Air Force slide shows F-35 became a bottomless money pit

(From Task and Purpose)

The briefing slides, obtained by The War Zone through the Freedom of Information Act, were shown to Trump by F-35 Joint Program Office chief U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan on Dec. 21, 2016, just over a week after the president-elect slammed program costs as “out of control” on Twitter.

While Bogdan’s briefing asserts that the “big, complicated” F-35 program is “critical to U.S. and allied air dominance for the next 50 years,” one slide offered a uniquely forthright assessment of the airframe: at 6.5 years behind schedule and $13.5 billion over budget, the F-35 program has found it “difficult to overcome a troubled past.”