Thread by @ValerieInsinna

Hi, I’m the author of this piece. Not trying to pick on this guy, but I’ve been getting a lot of mail/messages from both F-35 supporters and haters demanding to know why I didn’t talk about [insert topic here], and I wanted to address that.

https://twitter.com/tomleb/status/1165352958944514049

First things first: I’m Valerie, and I’m the air warfare reporter for @defense_news . I’ve had this job for three years, but even before then I’ve been covering defense technologies/budgets for years.

defensenews.com/author/valerie…

As one might expect, I’ve written a ton about the F-35, including parts shortages, issues with its logistics system, the modernization of its mission systems, opportunities for integrated AI, stories in which I talked with pilots about its performance overseas, C2D2, Turkey...

With the story that ran in @NYTimesAtWar , I wanted to meet the average Times reader where they were. And when I meet normal people and they find out I cover defense, what I hear about the F-35 is, “Oh isn’t that plane such a disaster that it can’t even fly in lightning?”

A lot of the old stories about the F-35’s technical issues, while true at the time, have had a really long shelf life in the minds of most Americans—way past when those problems were actually fixed, in many cases.

That doesn’t mean the F-35 doesn’t have challenges, but my hope was that my story could give the average Times reader an update. The Pentagon isn’t talking about issues with the landing hook or lightning protection. It’s concerned with supply chain and software development.

And as a side note, I am always going to write about cost, because

1. It’s taxpayer money, and the public deserves transparency and accountability
2. It matters to the services, which are worried about their ability to buy and sustain F-35s in number, as well as the president

My story is pretty long, but at one point it was thousands of words longer. There was so much to say and I couldn’t fit it all in the 4,000 words I had. I hope people learned from it, and if you didn’t, head over to @defense_news and read our more detailed daily coverage.

But I hope that when people read this, they get a sense of how difficult it is to fix the many and varied problems the F-35 has had over its lifetime and how different stakeholders are sometimes at odds with each other.

I hope that readers finish my story with a more nuanced view on the F-35 than “THING BAD,” because it’s possible to look across the program and recognize both failure and success. And I hope that when people read this, they are better able to form a more educated opinion.

But anyway please read my story:

nytimes.com/2019/08/21/mag…