So, even though Lockheed bought the rights to the YAK-141, the X-35B was actually not designed from the Yak-141. In fact by the time Lockheed got involved with Yakovlev the first X-35B prototype had already flown. Also the 3BSD design was part of Convair Model 200 which became a part of Lockheed when they bought Convair

The Su-35 is an advanced version of the Su-27. Not the Mig-29

Lockheed was given requirements that virtually guaranteed this aircraft would take longer to refine, cost more than estimated and be aerodynamically inferior to what it might have been - the B variant being the fly in the ointment. Given those factors and the aircraft's current dominance, I'd say they did a good job meeting those requirements. Hopefully, this will be the last time the government requires a 'do everything' aircraft.

the su57 isn't actually stealthy, it's just an expensive 4.5 gen interceptor

8:33 Dude's literally describing Cyberpunk 2077.

The bigger question would be: what if you spend these money on producing 3 different aircraft (3 separate airframes would mean no compromises that had to be made to fit everything in a relatively similar airframe of F-35 A-B-C) would you achieve a better result? Lot of military experts say "yes". And as a bonus you would've avoided having a huge fighter monopoly which is LM now.

It's deceptive to speak of the F-35 as costing $1.7 trillion. Over the years, for instance, Americans have spent around $1.5 trillion buying Toyotas. Would it make sense to refer to "Toyota -- The $1.5 trillion car"? Of course not. Same deal with the F-35. The F-35A is $40 million cheaper than the much less capable Eurofighter. Indeed, overall the F-35 (especially the A version) is a BARGAIN.

Indeed a lot of this $1.7 trillion is standard operational costs of an air force with airplanes

GE Aviation has completed the detailed design process of its XA100 engine under the U.S. Air Force's Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP) and it is extremely likely that the F-35 A & C will transition to it in the future to deal with a number of issues more than just cooling.

The Su-35 is an advance variant of the Su-27., not the MiG-29. The MiG-35 is an advanced variant of the MiG-29. I’m sure that mistake was an honest and momentary lapse in concentration.

The analogy at the start of the video is actually pretty easy - just stuff a Mercedes interior into a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo.

The amount of Nation's involved is just as staggering ;)👍

First, what is the source of the claim "The Joint Strike Fighter...will cost a staggering $1.7 trillion during its operational lifetime."? I remember the claims that the F-35 program in total will cost up to one trillion dollars over 50 years. That included: development, testing, production, pilot training, fuel, spare parts, maintenance, and basing costs. It turns out that number would be essentially the same for any fighter purchased at those numbers (2,000+) over 50 years. Now it's $1.7 trillion? Really? Says who?

Love the work, keep it up!

Great video! Despite the development issues the F-35 is so far ahead of the competition it’s well worth the cost.

7:14 that's a MIG not a SU35 when Im not mistaken... and the SU35 is not an upgraded version of the MIG29 but of the SU27 when Im not mistaken...

You omitted the Electronic Warfare in the platforms it consolidated. The right way to look at this jet's price tag can be done looking at attack missions during Gulf-1 When A6 did bombing runs, it required ~5:1 aircraft for the AA, EW, etc, support aircraft... The most dangerous tasks went to the F-117, which did them absolutely by themselves. Shouldn't we be comparing the strike PACKAGE'S cost to that of the F-117..? And likewise, isn't that how the F-35 should be evaluated..? It's possible each F-35 can do what previously took 4 aircraft to do, or can be done instead of not at all.

Currently working on a video for this myself (if I ever get it done), and the money side of things is so insanely misunderstood and misrepresented. The fact that so many are seeing the number for the ENTIRE lifespan of the F-35 with every cost included and just brushing it off at that just don't understand how these figures are worked out. If this same method of looking ahead in the budget, and accounting for inflation, wages, parts, maintenance, upgrades etc for any popular airframe such as the F-15 or A-10 would conclude similar if not worse results. Look forward to seeing your takes on this, love the content.

Nice content❤

The F-35 allows you to see the enemy first. Ask any fighter pilot what their #1 priority is for a warplane & they’ll 100% tell you SEE FIRST, SHOOT FIRST

Very interesting start on this video. Pointing out some good and bads that are all highly relevant not dure one can dra any conclusions though. If you see it from a project/program pointof view its almost a catastrophe. Porly managed and the mentioned delays and changes in requirement is a good proof of that probably it would have been best to devide the development in to smaller steps in technology. Right not you conclusion is based on that all the issues will be resolved. They might very well be but its a bit sharp to have any strict conclusions. A last point regarding later procurements of the platform. No not at all true. Two of the one you mentioned did not have a competition and one of them had very strange situation where the main contender after previously been elected sudenly was excluded to take part. And germany had only one choice as it need to fullfill its commitment to the nuclear sharing policy and the process finnished with a sudden war on Ukraina. So no. That can on no way or form be framed like it was in this video.

"su 35, an advanced version of their mig 29" ?????????? i presume you meant mig 35????????

Yes 100% worth the money. If we didn’t want it to cost so much, we shouldn’t have asked so much from it. Either way its become one of the most successful fighter programs in US history. With the cost of the F35A now being lower than many 4th generation platforms, there’s little doubt we got our money’s worth.

Romania announced its intention to get some

F-35 was designed multirole. Concept was both air to air to be first shooter and killer with Amraam from 60miles away against 4th gen fighters like Mig-29, Su-27 and air to ground attack from 45-60miles away to target SAM batteries using with JDAM in era 90s. But today reality is different. For air to air, question is that what is the engagement range of F-35 against su-57 or J-20 or a drone with RCS 0.01m2? Answer is 30miles. We don't know RCS of Su-57 and J-20 and radar performance but F-35's radar was designed almost 25 years ago with technology GaAs APG-81 and now F-35 is trying to update with GaN APG-85 (but not earlier than 2030 operational). So air to air with 2 numbers (1x F-35 and 1x su-57/J-20) 5th gen fighter (or 4.5gen su-57 and J-20 as you assumed) but more powerfull radar of adversary fighter than F-35, with compound effect of radar and RCS , it can be predicted that F-35 has no advantage as against 4th gen has. Almost F-35 air to air BVR advantage is balanced by Su-57 and J-20 or any air to air LO Drone (RCS 150mile range stealth kamikaze drones. No need to use fighter to neutralize a SAM battery using with high costly crewed F-35 even though B variant never will have HARM anti radiation missile. F-35''s engine enhancement effords such as ECU upgrade or similar has only capable to cover cooling needs of Block4. Not possible to use NGAD's adaptive cycle engine for F-35A/C variant due to weight and size so there will be no Block5 of F-35. Block5 means that more advanced and additional electronics and cooling demands than Block4. Today F-35's engine F135 is hottest turbofan engine of the planet (3600 °F of TIT). Also, USA knows this fact and wants to sell as much as can to its allies. For example But British Navy had cancelled to purchase more B variant after having experience about flight cost as 125k$ per hour (A variant around 30k$ per hour). It's not sustainable even today for B variant. Limited life not beyond Block4. It was good idea in 90s but has not a future advantage.

Still not combat proven.

I thought the Yak lineage was a myth. Yeah Dalek14mc MK2 thoroughly debunked this

Any country that has F-16's...

I did a 50 page research paper on this topic and all I can say is that the F-35 is the best fighter jet that the U.S. has ever produced.

Wait...the lift tech on the B was designed by the Russians?

How much USA spend money to update and upgrades all F35s

1.7 trillion is roughly 1 budget year for the US government or Roughly 2 budget years of the total US military budget

What even is a trillion dollars? I don't think anyone in charge even looks at the budget. Money isn't money anymore. It's never going to be paid back so what difference does it make if it's $500B or a 45 quadrillion Star Wars Republic Credits. It's just stuff only worth the cost of ink and paper.

Hate & Criticism about F-35 is better for F-35. Its very good motivation for Russia & its allies for not to research & invest their fortune on stealth design for upcoming decades.

Not if the engine can’t cool down, why only one engine rest of the planes have at least two?

I don't care if US have health care as long as they make these amazing machines for us, haha

For a peace time best plane to be in at the start of the next war... Yes it is as good as a P-38, F-14 or F-22 but for different reasons... It's a dirt cheap Gen 5 you can buy today that is ok even good at every thing you could ask a combat aircraft to do... Sure we all would want to divide that money for an A-10,000, Darkstar fighter and Super tomcat.... But I don't think unless they all shard the same sensor suite and helmet they would not have that gen 6 senor fustion goodness... Yes the F-35 can't replace anything the USAF/USN has but I'd rather have it as an bulk frontline unit with the gen 4+++ and F-22s,A-10s,NGAD and B-21s then just more of them which all are limited.

The real question is can you afford not to have it.

Please take cold aisberg with red under coat to proceed with F-35B LIGHTNING 11 LOCKHEED LUCKY MARTINES STLETH NASA USA

The F-35 is a tank with wings... a useless piece of crap unless you are firing missles from 200km away. So, what warrants the astronomical cost of one of these machines if it can easily get its ass kicked in a dog fight, and isn't any more useful than a hovering Apache or an anti-aircraft gun.

Anyone who doubts that the F-35 is worth it should put some skin in the game & go 1-on-1 with it. If you lose, you die.😂

A rabbit hole and just another threat to the taxpayers National Security.

7:07 The Su-35 isn't an advanced version of the MiG-29! 🙄 Did you perhaps mean the Mig-35? It's errors like this that make me question the knowledge of this channel. The successor to the Mig-29 (which was widely exported) was supposed to be the Mig-35, which was aimed primarily for export, but there were delays in production and potential export customers (such as India) have opted for alternatives, such as the Dassault Rafale. The Su-35 is an advanced Su-27 (NATO code "Flanker"), which is the main air superiority fighter of the Russian Air Force. It hasn't been widely exported compared to earlier Russian planes, but variants of the earlier Su-30 were exported to China and India.

Too many analogies in the beginning.

Is this fighter worth the cost? No. No aircraft is worth 1.7 trillion. Nothing would be worth that, unless it secured the nations of the west against the real threats to them - weapons of mass destruction and terrorism. The F-35 is completely irrelevant to those. That doesn't mean that it's useless. No doubt it'll be good at what it does - stealth intrusion into defended enemy airspace - although the intrusions can't be deep, because fuel limitations. Still, that would be a satisfactory result, at a hundredth of the cost. For what it's actually cost, no way.

Like the F-16 that it was designed to replace, the F-35 is expected to continue flying until at least the 2080s. Orders/service for thousands of foreign sales will easily cover the 1.7 Trillion.

It's a high price that in my humble opinion will pay itself in the long run. Stunning piece of work Juan.👍

False! F-35 is not a fighter, nor 5th gen, nor one airplane. It's tree diffdrent strike aircrafts with limited range, speed, agility, weapons load and limited self defence. It's definitly not worth the extremely high costs. All other modern aircrafts have at least as good avionics. The VLO doesn't help it from being detected at long distances, by developed countries. VLO air frames is possible for every country to make today. But the cost in the form of less capabilities is not worth the small advantage of it.

The F35 is far advanced than a motor vehicle. Should build one like a space ship far more advanced technology. God Speed to Ukraine.

The idea of sharing one platform for the Air Force, Navy and Marines is just idiotic. The F35 development project is a perfect example of too many chefs in the kitchen.

Worth every penny. You can't replace freedom. Autocratic rule is not an option, it is an insidious blight on humanity. Long live the F35 Lightning - rod of Democracy.

In a word, no

All things considered, the F-35 (especially the F-35A) is a BARGAIN. For starters, it's $40 million cheaper than the less capable Eurofighter. Second, consider the F-35's 24-to-one kill ratio in Red Flag exercises. The F-15 never enjoyed a Red Flag kill ratio anywhere near that yet, in the real world, the F-15 enjoys a kill ratio of 104 kills to zero losses! Apparently, a fighter's real world kill ratio tends to dramatically exceed its Red Flag kill ratio, possibly by orders of magnitude. As such, the F-35's Red Flag kill ratio of 24 to one could translate into the F-35 enjoying a real world kill ratio of perhaps hundreds of kills for every loss. Third, as the Ukraine war shows, non-stealthy fighters are largely USELESS in highly contested environments especially when they operate without guidance from a fifth generation fighter like the F-35.

It wasn’t 1.7 Trillion. Investigate money laundering.

This plane is such a dud. Good thing we spent 2 trillion dollars on it.

Overrated money pit. The F22 was just fine

Yes, yes it is.