Quote Originally Posted by drillerpie View Post
I didn't know that. I knew they were good, but I thought the project turned into a huge money pit coming in way over budget.
Absolutely it did. But that's development costs. Their actual production costs are ok now that the volume's starting to kick in. Not so much cost per flight hour, but you can't expect that to be the same as a 1970's technology airframe and still have the radar cross section of a gnat. They're much cheaper to operate than an F-22 and far more capable everywhere but a dogfight.

There's plenty wrong with the project overall and how it was managed, but the end result is a crushing advantage.