Avoiding the F-35 Trap
By 
New piece at the National Interest that thinks through some of the dilemmas of high-end modern military procurement:
Could a rethink of U.S. acquisition policies bring back the heady days of the “Century Series,” a time in which the Air Force could pick and choose between a variety of different fighters specialized in certain tasks? Could such an approach free the Pentagon from the specter of another gigantic, F-35-sized procurement project? An increasing number of people seem to think so, but before we take steps down that road we should make note of the pitfalls.
Long story short, the F-35 Trap was, in one important sense, a snare set by Lockheed Martin and parts of DoD to create path dependence and make it difficult for the United States to cancel the program. It was also a foreseeable (and to an extent understandable) reaction to technology trends that have resulted in a rapid increase in the cost of advanced systems, especially in the technology sector. The former is remediable, in part. The latter, not so much.