F-35 A ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / USAF) Source- The National Interest Author- David Axe It’s no secret that we at War Is Boring are skeptics when it comes to the F-35 Lightning II. The new, radar-evading, “fifth-generation” warplane is years late, over-budget and — by virtue of its many, sometimes contradictory missions — represents a design compromise, meaning it’s okay at lots of tasks but excels at none of them. Still, the U.S. military plans to replace nearly all of its current tactical jets with as many as 2,400 F-35s at a total program cost, including maintenance, of around $1 trillion. The U.S. Air Force, one of the F-35’s main proponents, is understandably optimistic about the single-engine, supersonic fighter — at least in public. Perhaps the strongest recent endorsement came from William Redmond, the executive director of the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In an unclassified presentation, Redmo